T he Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018 ( P.L. 115-141 ) was enacted on March 23, 2018. This omnibus bill included appropriations for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), of which USDA's domestic food assistance is a part. Prior to its enactment, the government had continued to operate for the first six months of the fiscal year under continuing resolutions (CRs). This report focuses on USDA's domestic food assistance programs; their funding; and, in some instances, policy changes provided by the enacted FY2018 appropriations law. USDA's domestic food assistance programs include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and the child nutrition programs (such as the National School Lunch Program). The domestic food assistance funding is, for the most part, administered by USDA's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). CRS Report R45128, Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2018 Appropriations provides an overview of the entire FY2018 Agriculture and Related Agencies appropriations law as well as a review of the reported bills and CRs preceding its enactment. With its focus on appropriations, this report discusses programs' eligibility requirements and operations minimally. See CRS Report R42353, Domestic Food Assistance: Summary of Programs for more background. Domestic food assistance—SNAP and child nutrition programs in the mandatory spending accounts, and WIC and other programs in the discretionary spending accounts—represents over two-thirds of the FY2018 Agriculture appropriations act ( Figure 1 ). The federal budget process treats discretionary and mandatory spending differently. Discretionary spending is controlled by annual appropriations acts and receives most of the attention during the appropriations process. The annual budget resolution process sets spending limits for discretionary appropriations. Agency operations (salaries and expenses) and many grant programs are discretionary. Mandatory spending —though carried in the appropriation—is controlled by budget rules during the authorization process. Appropriations acts then provide funding to match the parameters required by the mandatory programs' authorizing laws. For the domestic food assistance programs, these laws are typically reauthorized in farm bill and child nutrition reauthorizations. Domestic food assistance funding ( Table 1 ) largely consists of open-ended, appropriated mandatory programs—that is, it varies with program participation (and in some cases inflation) under the terms of the underlying authorization law. The largest mandatory programs include SNAP and the child nutrition programs (including the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program). Though their funding levels are dictated by the authorizing law, in most cases appropriations are needed to make funds available. The three largest discretionary budget items are WIC, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), and federal nutrition program administration. The enacted FY2018 appropriation would provide nearly $105 billion for domestic food assistance ( Table 1 ). This is a decrease of approximately $3.2 billion from FY2017. Declining participation in SNAP is responsible for most of the difference. Over 95% of the FY2018 appropriations are for mandatory spending. Table 1 summarizes funding for the domestic food assistance programs, comparing FY2018 levels to those of prior years. In addition to the accounts' appropriations language, the enacted appropriation's general provisions include additional funding, rescissions, and/or policy changes. These are summarized in this report. Table 1 compares the enacted funding to the House- and Senate-reported bills, prior years' enacted funding, and the President's FY2018 budget request. The President's budget request includes the Administration's forecast for programs with open-ended funding such as SNAP and the child nutrition programs; this assists the appropriations committees in providing funding levels expected to meet obligations. The budget also includes the Administration's requests for discretionary programs. Additionally, it is a place for the Administration to include legislative requests. The FY2018 request did include SNAP legislative proposals. Most significantly for the FNS programs, the President's FY2018 budget request did the following: It included eight legislative proposals pertaining to SNAP. The majority of these would have restricted SNAP eligibility and made changes to the benefit calculation. The request also proposed to require states to share the cost of SNAP benefits and to require retailers applying to accept SNAP benefits to pay a fee. Together, these proposals were estimated by both the Administration and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to reduce program spending in FY2018 and over the 10-year budget window. None of these policies were enacted as part of the FY2018 appropriation. Related policies were debated in the formulation of the 2018 farm bill. It requested no funding for the WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program, a program that had received consistent discretionary funding in past years (see " Commodity Assistance Program "). For the Under Secretary's office, the enacted FY2018 appropriation provides approximately $0.8 million. This office received approximately equal funding in FY2017. The enacted appropriation (§740) continues to require the coordination of FNS research efforts with USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. This is to include a research and evaluation plan submitted to Congress. Section 750 of the enacted appropriation prohibits state Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) contractors and subcontractors from charging fees for switching or routing USDA benefit transactions. All states use EBT systems for SNAP, and most use them for WIC. The provision defines switching fees as "the routing of an intrastate or interstate transaction that consists of transmitting the details of a transaction electronically recorded through the use of an electronic benefit transfer card in one State to the issuer of the card that may be in the same or different state." In the past, these fees have at times been charged to retailers and/or those routing transactions on behalf of retailers, increasing these entities' costs. The prohibition is in place from the date of enactment through the end of FY2019. Appropriations under the Food and Nutrition Act (formerly the Food Stamp Act) support (1) SNAP (and related grants); (2) a nutrition assistance block grant for Puerto Rico and nutrition assistance block grants to American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (all in lieu of SNAP); (3) the cost of food commodities as well as administrative and distribution expenses under the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR); (4) the cost of commodities for TEFAP, but not administrative/distribution expenses, which are covered under the Commodity Assistance Program budget account; and (5) Community Food Projects. The enacted appropriation provides approximately $74.0 billion for programs under the Food and Nutrition Act. This FY2018 level is approximately $3.2 billion less than FY2017 appropriations. This difference is largely due to a forecasted reduction in SNAP participation. The enacted appropriation provides $3 billion for the SNAP contingency reserve fund. The SNAP account also includes mandatory funding for TEFAP commodities. The enacted appropriation provides nearly $290 million, according to the terms of the Food and Nutrition Act. This is less funding (-$26.5 million, -8.3%) than the $316.0 million provided in FY2017. (TEFAP also receives discretionary funding for storage and distribution costs, as discussed later in " Commodity Assistance Program .") SNAP-Authorized Retailers. The FY2017 appropriations law limited USDA's implementation of December 2016 regulations regarding SNAP retailers' inventory requirements, and the enacted FY2018 appropriation (§728) continues those limits. Only SNAP-authorized retailers may accept SNAP benefits. On December 15, 2016, FNS published a final rule to change retailer requirements for SNAP authorization. The final rule would have implemented the 2014 farm bill's changes to inventory requirements for SNAP-authorized retailers ( P.L. 113-79 , §4002). Namely, the 2014 farm bill increased both the varieties of "staple foods" and the perishable items within those varieties that SNAP retailers must stock. In addition to codifying the farm bill's changes, the final rule would have changed how staple foods are defined, clarified limitations on retailers' sale of hot foods, and increased the minimum number of stocking units. Section 728 in the enacted appropriation continues to require that USDA amend its final rule to define "variety" more expansively and that USDA "apply the requirements regarding acceptable varieties and breadth of stock" that were in place prior to P.L. 113-79 until such regulatory amendments are made. In the meantime, USDA-FNS has implemented other aspects of the final rule, such as increased stocking units. Appropriations under the child nutrition account fund a number of programs and activities authorized by the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act. These include the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), School Breakfast Program (SBP), Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), Special Milk Program (SMP), assistance for state administrative expenses, procurement of commodities (in addition to transfers from separate budget accounts within USDA), state-federal reviews of the integrity of school meal operations ("Administrative Reviews"), "Team Nutrition" and education initiatives to improve meal quality and food safety, and support activities such as technical assistance to providers and studies/evaluations. (Child nutrition efforts are also supported by permanent mandatory appropriations and other funding sources discussed in the section " Other Nutrition Funding Support .") The enacted FY2018 appropriation provides approximately $24.3 billion for child nutrition programs. This is approximately $1.5 billion more (+6.4%) than the amount provided in FY2017, and reflects a transfer of over $8.9 billion from the Section 32 account. The enacted appropriation funds certain child nutrition discretionary grants. These include the following: School Meals Equipment Grants.