{ "id": "R45425", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R45425", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 592566, "date": "2019-02-28", "retrieved": "2019-12-20T19:52:11.680390", "title": "Budget Issues That Shaped the 2018 Farm Bill", "summary": "The farm bill is an omnibus, multiyear law that governs an array of agricultural and food programs. The farm bill has typically undergone reauthorization about every five years. The current farm bill\u2014the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-334), often called the \u201c2018 farm bill\u201d\u2014was enacted in December 2018 and expires in 2023.\nBudget for the 2018 Farm Bill \n(dollars in millions, FY2019-FY2023, mandatory outlays)\nFarm bill titlesApril 2018 baselineScore of P.L. 115-334Projected outlays at enactment\n\nCommodities\n31,340\n+101\n31,440\n\nConservation \n28,715\n+555\n29,270\n\nTrade\n1,809\n+235\n2,044\n\nNutrition \n325,922\n+98\n326,020\n\nCredit\n-2,205\n+0\n-2,205\n\nRural Development \n98\n-530\n-432\n\nResearch\n329\n+365\n694\n\nForestry \n5\n+0\n5\n\nEnergy\n362\n+109\n471\n\nHorticulture \n772\n+250\n1,022\n\nCrop Insurance \n38,057\n-47\n38,010\n\nMiscellaneous\n1,259\n+685\n1,944\n\nSubtotal\n426,462\n+1,820\n428,282\n\nIncrease revenue\n-\n+35\n35\n\nTotal\n426,462\n+1,785\n428,247\n\nSource: CRS, compiled using the CBO Baseline by Title (unpublished; April 2018), and the CBO cost estimate of the conference agreement for H.R. 2 (December 11, 2018).\n\nThe farm bill provides an opportunity for Congress to choose how much support, if any, to provide for various agriculture and nutrition programs and how to allocate it among competing constituencies. Under congressional budgeting rules, many programs are assumed to continue beyond the end of a farm bill. From a budgetary perspective, this provides a baseline for comparing future spending reauthorizations, reallocations to other programs, and reductions to projected spending. Since 2000, congressional goals for the farm bill\u2019s budget have varied: The 2002 farm bill increased spending over 10 years, the 2008 farm bill was essentially budget neutral, the 2014 farm bill reduced spending, and the 2018 farm bill is budget neutral, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). \nThe farm bill authorizes programs in two spending categories: mandatory spending and discretionary spending. Mandatory spending is not only authorized but also actually provided via budget enforcement rules. Discretionary spending may be authorized in a farm bill but is not actually provided until budget decisions are made in a future annual appropriations act.\nThe CBO baseline is a projection at a particular point in time of future federal spending on mandatory programs under current law. When a new bill is proposed that would affect mandatory spending, the cost impact (score) is measured in relation to the baseline. Changes that increase spending relative to the baseline have a positive score; those that decrease spending relative to the baseline have a negative score. Federal budget rules such as \u201cPayGo\u201d may require budgetary offsets to balance new spending so that there is no increase in the federal deficit. \nThe April 2018 CBO baseline was the official benchmark to measure changes made by the 2018 farm bill. The five-year baseline was $426 billion over FY2019-FY2023 (what the 2014 farm bill would have spent had it been continued). The budgetary impact of the 2018 farm bill is measured relative to that baseline. Among its impacts are these four points:\nThe enacted farm bill increases net outlays in the first five years by $1.8 billion, which is offset by the same amount of net reductions in outlays during the second five years. Therefore, over 10 years, the net impact is budget neutral.\nEight titles in the enacted law have increased outlays over the five-year period, including Farm Commodities, Conservation, Trade, Nutrition, Research, Energy, Horticulture, and Miscellaneous. Two of those titles\u2014Conservation and Nutrition\u2014have reductions in the second five years of the budget window that make them budget neutral over 10 years.\nMost of the budget reductions at the title level that provide offsets for the increases above, especially in the 10-year budget window, are from changes in the rural development title.\nThe 2018 farm bill provides continuing funding and, in some cases, permanent baseline, for 23 of the 39 so-called programs without baseline from the 2014 farm bill.\nProjected outlays for the 2018 farm bill at enactment are $428 billion over the FY2019-FY2023 five-year life of the act. The Nutrition title and its largest program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), account for $326 billion (76%) of those projected outlays. The remaining 24%, $102 billion, is for agricultural programs, mostly in crop insurance (8.9%), farm commodity programs (7.3%), and conservation (6.8%). Other titles of the farm bill account for 1% of the mandatory spending, some of which are funded primarily with discretionary spending.\nHistorical trends in farm bill spending show increased SNAP outlays after the 2009 recession, increased crop insurance outlays based on insurable coverage, farm commodity programs outlays that vary inversely with markets, and steadily increasing conservation program outlays that have leveled off in recent years.\nActual and Projected Spending by Major Farm Bill Mandatory Programs\n/\nSource: CRS. \nNotes: Darker shades of each color are actual outlays based on USDA data. Lighter shades are CBO data, including estimates for FY2017-FY2018 and CRS analysis of CBO data for projections at enactment of the 2018 farm bill.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R45425", "sha1": "32484c709be1d3443755855abb5d4ff4f979a8f9", "filename": "files/20190228_R45425_32484c709be1d3443755855abb5d4ff4f979a8f9.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/4.png": "files/20190228_R45425_images_753a367b3477ec657e92bfa120c79340d501a4b4.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/2.png": "files/20190228_R45425_images_f0f7c774b4cc18639db5a7ff2551ba8bf236af62.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/10.png": "files/20190228_R45425_images_50d7b804cbeb52532cd46dd1f8d859ed6afb799e.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/7.png": "files/20190228_R45425_images_34d51320eaa1d73cb90765dde5f8db5e197b7380.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/6.png": "files/20190228_R45425_images_ff2ae40150e0bcada6b7387cee0b01ea42fa0945.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/0.png": "files/20190228_R45425_images_02fb3765386b3e7a7d0a8d2dea65f38b0661d398.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/5.png": "files/20190228_R45425_images_050119d0b54caa786971ed5708bf69b219e4dbeb.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/8.png": "files/20190228_R45425_images_fbefbe086e72daaffa2f1f27487af05fba8508cb.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/1.png": "files/20190228_R45425_images_b30cfd309abd9a61ac5d029d0ded8d9a4ff3251c.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/3.png": "files/20190228_R45425_images_84c1efc565a3cfe5137ef6b983b9bf7e77319026.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/9.png": "files/20190228_R45425_images_1c670c102c4f9cf9d8ab49bee3b87167f030d826.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R45425", "sha1": "7fefe7be654c0792794267e3b54e531f9abfb1c9", "filename": "files/20190228_R45425_7fefe7be654c0792794267e3b54e531f9abfb1c9.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4830, "name": "Agriculture Budget & Appropriations" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4920, "name": "Agriculture Appropriations" } ] }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 588355, "date": "2018-12-06", "retrieved": "2018-12-19T14:04:31.233818", "title": "Budget Issues Shaping the 2018 Farm Bill", "summary": "The farm bill is an omnibus, multi-year law that governs an array of agricultural and food programs. It provides an opportunity for policymakers to periodically address a broad range of agricultural and food issues. The farm bill has typically undergone reauthorization about every five years. The 115th Congress has considered a new farm bill but has not enacted one to date. Both the House and the Senate passed versions of a 2018 farm bill (H.R. 2) in June 2018. Conference proceedings officially began in September 2018 but have not reached agreement.\nThe farm bill provides an opportunity for Congress to choose how much support, if any, to provide for various agriculture and nutrition programs and how to allocate it among competing constituencies. Under congressional budgeting rules, many programs are assumed to continue beyond the end of a farm bill. From a budgetary perspective, this provides funding to reauthorize programs, reallocate funding to other programs, or be taken for deficit reduction. \nBudget for a 2018 Farm Bill \n(dollars in millions, FY2019-FY2028)\n\n\nCBO score\n\nFarm bill titles\nCBO baseline\nHouse-passed\nSenate-passed\n\nCommodities\n61,151\n+284\n-408\n\nConservation \n59,754\n-795\n+0\n\nTrade\n3,624\n+470\n+515\n\nNutrition \n663,828\n-1,426\n+94\n\nCredit\n-4,558\n+0\n+0\n\nRural Development \n168\n+0\n-2,340\n\nResearch\n604\n+250\n+685\n\nForestry \n10\n+0\n+5\n\nEnergy\n612\n-517\n+375\n\nHorticulture \n1,547\n+10\n+626\n\nCrop Insurance \n78,037\n-161\n-2\n\nMiscellaneous\n2,423\n+566\n+517\n\nSubtotal\n867,200\n-1,320\n+68\n\nIncrease in Revenue\n-\n+465\n+68\n\nTotal\n867,200\n-1,785\n0\n\nSource: CRS, compiled using the CBO Baseline by Title (unpublished; April 2018), based on the CBO baseline (April 2018), and the CBO cost estimates for H.R. 2 as passed by the House and as passed by the Senate (July 24, 2018).\n\nThe farm bill authorizes programs in two spending categories: mandatory spending and discretionary spending. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) baseline is a projection at a particular point in time of future federal spending on mandatory programs under current law. When a new bill is proposed that would affect mandatory spending, the cost impact (score) is measured in relation to the baseline. Changes that increase spending relative to the baseline have a positive score; those that decrease spending relative to the baseline have a negative score. Federal budget rules such as \u201cPayGo\u201d may require budgetary offsets to balance new spending so that there is no increase in the federal deficit. Discretionary spending may be authorized in a farm bill but is not actually provided until budget decisions are made in a future annual appropriations act.\nSince 2000, farm bill budgets have varied: The 2002 farm bill increased overall spending, the 2008 farm bill was essentially budget neutral, the 2014 farm bill reduced spending, and the 2018 farm bill is projected to be essentially budget neutral. \nThe April 2018 CBO baseline for farm bill programs, used as the official benchmark in 2018, contains $867 billion over FY2019-FY2028\u201477% of which stems from the nutrition title ($664 billion) and its largest program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The remaining $203 billion baseline is for agricultural programs, mostly in crop insurance, farm commodity programs, and conservation. Other titles of the farm bill contribute about 1% of the baseline, some of which are funded primarily with discretionary spending.\nThe budgetary impact of the 2018 farm bill proposals are measured relative to the CBO baseline\u2014that is, what the 2014 farm bill (current law) would have spent had it continued. Relative to the baseline, the House-passed bill would reduce federal outlays by $1.8 billion over 10 years (-0.2%), and the Senate-passed bill would remain budget neutral (+0%) over the same 10-year period. These overall relatively small scores are the net result of sometimes relatively larger increases and reductions across individual titles. Some of the overall scores within a single title of the farm bill are the net result of sometimes large changes in individual programs that may reflect changes in the direction of policy.\nThe House bill would achieve its overall 10-year net reduction primarily by reducing net outlays in four titles (Nutrition, Conservation, Energy, and Crop Insurance). It would increase spending by less than the total of these reductions across five other titles (Miscellaneous, Trade, Commodities, Research, and Horticulture). The Nutrition title has provisions that sum to a $22 billion reduction over 10 years (including those for work requirements) and provisions that would add to $20.6 billion in increased spending. Similarly, the Conservation title has provisions that sum to a $12.6 billion reduction (including repealing the Conservation Stewardship Program), as well as provisions that add spending totaling $11.8 billion.\nThe Senate bill would achieve a budget-neutral outcome by reducing net spending primarily in the Rural Development title but also in the Commodities and Crop Insurance titles. It would increase spending across seven titles (Research, Horticulture, Miscellaneous, Trade, Energy, Nutrition, and Forestry).\nFor some of the programs without baseline, both the House-passed and the Senate-passed bills would provide continuing funding and, in some cases, permanent baseline.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R45425", "sha1": "69c7c25283ba3d5f2a8746b36a96df5d31ac4228", "filename": "files/20181206_R45425_69c7c25283ba3d5f2a8746b36a96df5d31ac4228.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/4.png": "files/20181206_R45425_images_7b8726fa8529bf3c421803f2611870a8b504ccad.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/2.png": "files/20181206_R45425_images_a248836e4bda1e4a3b5f3ee3b59e0aa82ce7a981.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/7.png": "files/20181206_R45425_images_9c9d4e097a1ad87de67b1db11d832324fa76c1bd.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/6.png": "files/20181206_R45425_images_40aea304e7d221b699f46717fc5520c64d18cbc9.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/1.png": "files/20181206_R45425_images_32ec00ee014921f1e0380c2fe5a7cf42516e6064.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/5.png": "files/20181206_R45425_images_ba7d05c9a0143c6f25558b6871f4acdb9fffe7d3.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/0.png": "files/20181206_R45425_images_6ff2acea4cbfa8203debcf2df96c5aaffa38c808.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45425_files&id=/3.png": "files/20181206_R45425_images_c5220e68116bfff890fdfa202d8902443b4d0017.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R45425", "sha1": "740d753d60c48cd2731199500ea1613ac4f3502f", "filename": "files/20181206_R45425_740d753d60c48cd2731199500ea1613ac4f3502f.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4830, "name": "Agriculture Budget & Appropriations" }, { "source": "IBCList", "id": 4920, "name": "Agriculture Appropriations" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Agricultural Policy", "Appropriations", "Economic Policy" ] }