OMAHA (DTN) -- A congressional look at the Bush administration's farm bill proposals doesn't come up with the overall budget savings projected by the administration, but instead falls in line with projected spending for the 2007 farm bill already calculated by Congress' budget gurus.
An examination of the administration's budget proposals for the 2007 farm bill by the Congressional Budget Office calculated the USDA's plan for commodity farm programs would not save the projected $4.49 billion over 10 years. Under the USDA plan, the Commodity Title of the farm bill would spend about the same amount budgeted by the CBO for baseline spending over the next decade, or roughly $74.5 billion.
Lawmakers are looking for ways to extract more out of the budget for the farm bill. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and ranking member, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., just recently sent a letter to their colleagues on the Budget Committee looking for more funds for the farm-bill legislation. The two explained that the current baseline is an average of $8.4 billion less per year than the current farm bill, and just over half of the commodity spending for the last decade.
The projections by Congress and the administration suggest there are few differences in the spending farmers can expect to see in the upcoming farm bill. Lawmakers likely will be restricted to staying close to that $74.5 billion figure when crafting legislation for commodity programs.
USDA projected total spending growth for all of its programs -- commodities, conservation, nutrition, trade, energy, rural development and miscellaneous programs -- would see an overall increase of $4.95 billion over 10 years. The CBO projects the increased spending will be closer to $9.9 billion.
The USDA's proposal was "scored" initially by the White House Office of Management and Budget. The CBO examined potential differences in the USDA's spending plans to the CBO "baseline" established earlier this year.
A Congressional staff person speaking on background said the budget projections from OMB and CBO aren't considered as important overall as the fact that USDA offered concrete farm bill proposals for Congress to consider. Prior to the 2002 farm bill, USDA only offered general guidelines for Congress.
There are significant differences in some programs in the CBO projections and those created by USDA. For instance, the CBO estimates spending on dairy programs would increase $1.7 billion over the next decade, compared to $793 million projected growth in spending by the administration. The difference suggests congressional researchers project lower milk prices could spur greater demand for payments from programs such as the Milk Income Loss Contract program.
One of the biggest differences in budget projections comes with the Conservation Security Program, a personal favorite of Senate Agriculture Chairman Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. The CBO shows the administration's plan would cut spending for the Conservation Security Program by $2.4 billion instead of increasing funding by $500 million. Most of the lost spending in the Conservation Security Program would be in the last two years of the 10-year budget cycle.
The Conservation Security Program differences are likely to catch the eye of Harkin who has envisioned the working lands program as an uncapped conservation entitlement. Under Harkin's view, no farmer who qualifies for the CSP would be denied.
The USDA proposal for CSP would increase spending after current budget caps on the program expire. It would put the program at about $800 million spending annually.
"I'm trying to get it up more than that," Harkin said in an interview. "We can utilize more than $1 billion a year in that and more as the years go by."
Chris Clayton can be reached at [email protected].High Plains Journal
