Over 30 Farm Bill Programs Need Budget Baselines After FY 2018

The farm bill contains 37 programs that currently do not have a budget baseline after the 2018 fiscal year. The programs account for $2.6 billion in spending. The Congressional Research Service says some programs may not be assumed to continue in the budget baseline, because the program had estimated mandatory spending less than a minimum $50 million scoring threshold in the last year of the farm bill, or the Budget Committees and/or Agriculture Committees determined that mandatory spending shall not extend beyond expiration.

With the budget for the upcoming farm bill reauthorization expected to be tight, the fate of these programs could be in question, according to Cansler Consulting. However, Congress did secure funding to keep the programs during the last farm bill. Programs needing baseline budget funding in the next farm bill include those under commodity, conservation, nutrition, rural development, research and energy, among others.

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