FY2011 Budget and Appropriations Resources

On February 1, 2010, President Obama released a $3.8 trillion budget proposal for fiscal year 2011.  The proposal is a recommended level of spending and revenue for the coming fiscal year, and is utilized as a platform to set forth the key policy initiatives of the White House.  Preparing the President's budget is certainly no easy task, especially with unemployment hovering around 10 percent nationwide and the federal deficit near $1.6 trillion, which consequently represents the largest percentage of the GDP, 10.6%, since WWII. 

Once again, USDA is looking at significant cuts – altogether a reduction of over $1 billion in discretionary budget authority.  Below is a list of the key priorities for the White House as laid out in their budget documents, along with a number of their recommended cuts for the agency:  

  • $7.6 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) to serve all eligible individuals.
  • $10 billion over 10 years for a strong Child Nutrition and WIC reauthorization.
  • $50 million for a new “Healthy Food Financing Initiative” to bring grocery stores and other healthy food retailers to underserved communities.
  • $429 million, the highest funding level ever, for competitive grants through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.
  • Refocuses Forest Service resources to support watershed and ecosystem improvement efforts.
  • Supports the Department’s effort to reduce foodborne illnesses from products inspected by USDA.
  • Funds several important conservation efforts such as improving water quality, restoring and protecting almost 200,000 additional acres of wetlands, and reducing nutrient loading in the Chesapeake Bay.
  • Enhances the Department’s efforts to promote U.S. agricultural exports by increasing assistance to develop and maintain overseas markets and reduce foreign trade barriers and other practices that hinder agricultural exports.

 Recommended Cuts

  • Eliminate payments to cotton and peanut producers that compensate them for their cost of storing their commodities that are put under loan with USDA.
  • Eliminate funding in 2011 for the USDA’s Forest Service’s Economic Action Program.
  • Eliminate the USDA Health Care Services grants program; proposes to support health care services in rural areas through HHS programs.
  • Eliminate the High Energy Cost Grants program because “it is duplicative of, and less effective than, the Rural Utilities Service’s (RUS) Electric Loan Program.”
  • The 2011 Budget does not fund the USDA Rural Housing Service’s multifamily housing demonstration program because “there is no authority for the demonstration program.”
  • Eliminate the USDA Public Broadcasting Grants program.
  • Eliminate the Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Program.
  • Proposes no new funding, as well as the cancellation of $75.5 million in existing balances from previously approved facility construction funding, for USDA’s ARS.
  • Proposes to limit farm subsidies to wealthy farmers by reducing the cap on Direct Payments by 25 percent, and reducing each of the Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) commodity payment eligibility limits for farm and non-farm income by $250,000 over three years.  
  • Proposes to reduce the Market Access Program (MAP) by 20 percent.