# ![](media/image1.jpeg){width="6.246527777777778in" height="1.0166666666666666in"}

Staff Contact: Russ Vought (x68581) October 28, 2005

**Appropriations Policy Brief**

**H.R. 2744 --- Agriculture Appropriations Act for FY 2006**

***Conference Report***

**[Program Terminations]{.underline}:**

[]{.mark}

According to the House Appropriations Committee, the bill eliminates the
following six programs for a total of \$264 million in savings:

-   Jobs-in-the-Woods Program (-\$6 million)

-   Regional, State, and Local Grants (-\$75 million)

-   Higher Education Agrosecurity Program (-\$5 million)

-   National Disaster Emergency Loan Subsidy (-\$3 million)

-   Rural Telephone Bank Loan Authorizations (-\$175 million)

[]{.mark}

**[Items of Note]{.underline}:**

[]{.mark}

**Country of Origin Labeling:** Delays the implementation of the Country
of Origin Labeling (COOL) on meat and meat products until 2008.

[]{.mark}

**Outsourcing/A-76 Activities:** Prohibits funds for Circular A-76
activities (governing the federal government's outsourcing policies)
until the Secretary has submitted to the Committees on Appropriations of
both Houses of Congress a report on the Department's contracting-out
policies, including agency budgets for contracting out.

**Thad Cochran Horticultural Laboratory**: Renames the South Mississippi
Branch Experiment Station in Poplarville, MS, as the "Thad Cochran
Southern Horticultural Laboratory." [This provision violates House Rule
21, which prohibits the naming of a public work after a sitting Member
of Congress.]{.underline}

**Sheep Industry Study**: Provides \$350,000 for a comprehensive report
on the economic development and current status of the U.S. sheep
industry by the National Academy of Sciences.

**Bison Meat Purchase**: Provides \$3 million for the purchase of bison
meat for the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (federally
donated food on Indian reservations through the food stamp program) from
Native American bison producers.

[]{.mark}

**Colorado Land Lease**: Allows the Secretary to lease 40 acres of land
at the Central Plains Experiment Station (Nunn, CO) to Colorado State
University for its Shortgrass Steppe Biological Field Station.

**Native Hawaiian and Alaskan Native Educational Grants**: Provides \$6
million (by cross reference) for noncompetitive grants to Native
Hawaiian and Alaskan Native serving institutions. [Some conservatives
may be concerned that such benefits are being dispensed as if Native
Hawaiians constitute an Indian tribe]{.underline}. However, Native
Hawaiians are a racial group -- not a tribe -- and a program dispensing
benefits to them would likely be subject to "strict scrutiny" (meaning
the law in question is presumptively invalid) in Federal courts in
determining its constitutionality. For more information on why Native
Hawaiians are not a tribe and why they should not be made into a tribe,
please see the following brief from the Senate Republican Policy
Committee:
[http://rpc.senate.gov/\_files/Jun2205NatHawSD.pdf]{.underline}

**Mississippi Land Conveyance**: Allows Agriculture Research Service to
convey 19 acres in Oktibbeha County (MS) to Mississippi State University
once vacated.

**Digital Conversion**: Provides \$5 million for non-commercial
educational television broadcast stations that serve rural areas and
qualify for community service grants from the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting to convert from analog to digital.

**Commissions and Task Forces**: Limits the amount of funding that can
be spent on advisory committees, panels, commissions, and task forces of
the Department of Agriculture to \$1.8 million.

**Loan Limits**: Includes language that "hereafter, loan levels provided
in this *or any other* Appropriations Act to the Department of
Agriculture shall be considered estimates, not limitations" (emphasis
added). [It is not clear what budget and policy implications this
language may have]{.underline} with regard to the various loan programs
funded through H.R. 2744 and future agriculture appropriations bills.

[]{.mark}

**Tobacco Research**: Prohibits Agriculture Research Service or
Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service funding
from being used for research related to the production, processing, or
marketing of tobacco or tobacco products.

[]{.mark}

**Future User Fee Proposals**: Prohibits funds to pay the salary of any
employee who works on the President's FY07 budget submission if it
assumes new revenues stemming from user fee proposals that have not been
enacted prior to the submission (unless the submission also identifies
which spending proposals should not be enacted in the absence of the new
revenues).

[]{.mark}

**Hunger Fellowship Program**: Provides \$2.5 million for Bill Emerson
and Mickey Leland Hunger Fellowships.

  ------------------- ------------- ------------- ------------ ------------ --------------------- ------------- -------- -----------
                      **FY 2005**   **FY 2006**   **FY 2006**  **FY2006**   **[FY2006]{.mark}**   **Conf Vs.**  **Conf   **Conf
                                                                                                                Vs.**    Vs.**

                      **Enacted**   **Request**   **House**    **Senate**   **[Conf]{.mark}**     **Request**   **FY     **House**
                                                                                                                2005**   

  Department of       16,720        15,328        15,259       15,769       [15,455]{.mark}       127           -1,265   196
  Agriculture                                                                                                            

  *Agriculture        1,288         1,061         1,122        1,271        [1,266]{.mark}        205           -22      144
  Research Service*                                                                                                      

  *Cooperative State  1,165         721           832          867          [895]{.mark}          174           -270     63
  Research Education                                                                                                     
  and Extension                                                                                                          
  Service*                                                                                                               

  *Animal Plant       813           871           848          813          [820]{.mark}          -51           7        -28
  Health Inspection                                                                                                      
  Service*                                                                                                               

  *Food Safety and    817           850           837          837          [838]{.mark}          -12           21       1
  Inspection Service*                                                                                                    

  *Farm Service       1,458         1,426         1,405        1,429        [1,417]{.mark}        -9            -41      12
  Agency*                                                                                                                

  *Natural Resources  982           289           328          444          [367]{.mark}          78            -615     39
  Conservation                                                                                                           
  Service*                                                                                                               

  *Rural Development* 835           690           811          842          [842]{.mark}          152           7        31

  *Rural Housing      1,366         1,587         1,407        1,432        [1,435]{.mark}        -152          69       28
  Service*                                                                                                               

  *Foreign            1,327         1,214         1,435        1,478        [1,478]{.mark}        264           151      43
  Agriculture                                                                                                            
  Service*                                                                                                               

  *Food and Nutrition 5,554         5,830         5,545        5,567        [5,559]{.mark}        -271          5        14
  Service*                                                                                                               

  HHS - Food and Drug 1,433         1,487         1,473        1,479        [1,477]{.mark}        -10           44       4
  Administration                                                                                                         

  **Grand Total**     **18,253**    **16,918**    **16,830**   **17,348**   **[17,031]{.mark}**   113           -1,222   201
  ------------------- ------------- ------------- ------------ ------------ --------------------- ------------- -------- -----------

**Designation of Communities as Rural:** Designates the following
cities, townships, and municipalities as "rural areas" or otherwise
eligible for various federal grant and loan programs: Burlington,
Bridgeton, and Camden (NJ), Kingston (NC), Portsmouth (OH), Bloomington
(IL), Hidalgo (TX), Elgin and Lone Grove (OK), Butte/Silverbow (MT),
Cleburne County (AR), Upper Kanawha Valley Enterprise Community (WV),
Lodi (CA), Atchison (KS), Belle Glade (FL), and Vega Baja, Carolina,
Manati, Guayama, Fajardo, Humacao, and Naguabo (Puerto Rico).

**[Funding Summaries]{.underline}:**

[]{.mark}

*In millions*

**Note:** The reason this chart shows deeper reductions in spending from
year-to-year is because the FY06 figures are adjusted for mandatory
offsets that bring down the bill's cost or its "score." For example, in
FY05, the total level of discretionary spending was \$18.2 billion (as
shown above), offset by \$1.4 billion in mandatory savings, bringing the
cost to \$16.8 billion. These mandatory offsets have become routine in
recent years on the agricultural appropriations bills, but they can make
year-to-year comparisons difficult.

**[Earmarks:]{.underline}**

Included in the bill **TEXT**:

-   \$1 million for the Indian Creek Watershed Flood Prevention Project,
    Kane County, IL

-   \$50,000 for the Hickory Creek Special Drainage District, Bureau
    County, IL

-   \$1.8 million for the Muskingam River Watershed, Mohican River,
    Jerome and Muddy Fork, Ohio (construction removal)

-   \$(unspecified) for the Matanuska River erosion control project
    (AK), the Little Otter Creek project (MO), the Manoa watershed
    project (HI), the West Tarkio (IA), the Steeple Run and West Branch
    DuPage County watershed projects (IL), the Coal Creek project (UT),
    the East Locust Creek Watershed Plan Revision (MS), and the Utah
    Conservation Initiative.

-   \$210,000 for the Little Red River Irrigation Project, AR

-   \$1 million for the Ohio Livestock Expo Center in Springfield, OH

-   \$200,000 for a grant to Alaska Village Initiatives (private lands
    wildlife management)

-   \$2.3 million for the Wisconsin-Federation of Cooperatives (health
    care cooperative purchasing alliances)

-   \$140,000 for a grant to the University of Nevada at Reno

-   \$400,000 for a grant to the Ohio Center for Farmland Policy
    Innovation, Ohio State Univ.

-   \$200,000 for a grant to the Utah State University

-   \$500,000 for Nueces County, Texas Regional Fairground

-   \$350,000 for administrative support for "world hunger
    organizations"

-   \$1 million for construction and rehabilitation of housing for the
    Mississippi band of Choctaw Indians

-   \$1.3 million for the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center

-   \$750,000 for the Denali Commission (AK) to address deficiencies in
    solid waste disposal sites

The bill also includes the following earmarks in the text that provide
funds "notwithstanding any other provision of law" (meaning current law
limitations or prohibitions are potentially waived) and without a
specified amount:

-   City of Palmer (AK) for a waste disposal grant equal to "75% of the
    total cost of providing sewer service to the proposed hospital in
    the Mantanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska"

-   Tri-Valley Community Center in Healy (AK), the Cold Climate Housing
    Research Center in Fairbanks (AK), and the University of
    Alaska-Fairbanks Allied Health Learning Center for skill
    labs/classrooms "in amounts that are equal to not more than 75
    percent of the total facility"

Included in the joint explanatory statement of the conference committee
(not an exhaustive list):

-   \$200,000 for the Alaska Village Initiatives

-   \$970,055 to the City of Bozeman for Hyalite Waterline and Intake,
    MT

-   \$900,000 for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) Research in
    Ames, IA, \$450,000 in Albany, CA, and \$500,000 in Pullman, WA

-   \$250,000 for Obesity/Nutrition research in Beltsville, MD,
    specifically, "Understanding Dietary Patterns That Contribute to
    Obesity in Low Socioeconomic and Minority Populations in the U.S"

-   \$350,000 for the study, "Identify and Characterize Genes That
    Affect Feed Efficiency, Reproduction, Animal Well-being, Disease
    Resistance Product Quality, and Other Economically Important
    Production Traits in Food Animals" in Clay Center, NE

-   \$130,000 to study Agroforestry in Booneville, AR

-   \$75,000 to study Catfish Genome in Auburn, AL

-   \$250,000 to conduct Cereal Crops Research in Madison, WI

-   \$510,000 for Dairy Forage in Madison, WI

-   \$300,000 for the Delta Human Nutrition Research in Stoneville, MS

-   \$100,000 for Invasive Aquatic Weeds in Ft. Lauderdale, FL

-   \$180,000 for Turf Grass Research in Beaver, WV

-   \$58.8 million for the National Center for Animal Health in Ames, IA

-   \$3.6 million for Grape Genomics Research Center in Davis, CA

-   \$3.6 for the U.S. Agricultural Research Station in Salinas, CA

-   \$3.6 for the U.S. Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in
    Hilo, HI

-   \$1 million for the Aquaculture Facility in Aberdeen/Bilingsley
    Creek, ID

-   \$3.6 for the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research
    in Peoria, IL

-   \$3 million for the Animal Waste Management Research Laboratory in
    Bowling Green, KY

-   \$4 million for the Forage-Animal Research Laboratory in Lexington,
    KY

-   \$3.6 for the ARS Sugarcane Research Laboratory in Houma, LA

-   \$5 million for the Poultry Science Research Facility in Starkville,
    MS

-   \$2 million for the Appalachian Fruit Laboratory in Kearneysville,
    WV

-   \$2.6 million for fruit fly control in Texas

-   \$36.6 million for citrus canker eradication