The Agriculture appropriations bill—formally known as the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act—provides funding for the following agencies and departments: all of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) except the Forest Service, which is funded in the Interior appropriations bill, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the Department of Health and Human Services, and in the House, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In the Senate, the Financial Services bill contains CFTC appropriations. Jurisdiction is with the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations, and their respective Subcommittees on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies. The bill includes both mandatory and discretionary spending, although most decision making concerns discretionary spending. See Appendix A for more on scope and terminology. Both the House and the Senate reported bills for FY2013 Agriculture appropriations ( Table 1 ). The Senate full committee moved first, reporting S. 2375 ( S.Rept. 112-163 ) on April 26, 2012. The House subcommittee marked up its bill on June 6, 2012, followed by full committee action on H.R. 5973 ( H.Rept. 112-542 ) on June 19, 2012. No further action occurred on the bills in the 112 th Congress. FY2013 began under a continuing resolution (CR; P.L. 112-175 ) that lasts until March 27, 2013. The CR funds discretionary operations at FY2012 levels plus 0.612%, continues mandatory programs as needed, and continues other terms and conditions that were applicable in FY2012. Table 2 summarizes the bill totals, as proposed in the 112 th Congress, by title. In the past 14 years, stand-alone Agriculture appropriations bills were enacted five times, in FY2000-FY2002, FY2006, and FY2010 ( Table B -1 in Appendix B ). Omnibus appropriations were used seven times, in FY1999, FY2003-FY2005, FY2008, FY2009, and FY2012. Year-long continuing resolutions were used twice, in FY2007 and FY2011. Figure B -1 shows the timeline. Amounts in this report are based on H.R. 5973 and S. 2375 in the 112 th Congress and not the continuing resolution. For enacted post-sequestration amounts, see CRS Report R43110, Agriculture and Related Agencies: FY2014 and FY2013 (Post-Sequestration) Appropriations . The Senate Appropriations committee approved its FY2013 Agriculture appropriations bill ( S. 2375 , S.Rept. 112-163 ) by a vote of 28-1 on April 26, 2012. The full committee bypassed subcommittee action by "polling" the bill out of subcommittee—a procedure that permits a bill to advance if subcommittee members independently agree to move it along. This expedited procedure, formerly uncommon for Agriculture appropriations, has been used since FY2009. The Senate-reported bill would have increased discretionary Agriculture appropriations to $20.8 billion, an increase of $1.2 billion (+6.2%) above FY2012 levels, after adjusting for the inclusion of disaster provisions and CFTC appropriations in FY2012 ( Table 2 ). Without these adjustments, the Senate-reported discretionary amount was about $700 million (+3.5%) above FY2012. The Senate bill would have differed from the enacted FY2012 appropriation primarily by increasing discretionary domestic nutrition programs (+$438 million), agricultural research (+$64 million), rural development (+$50 million), the FDA (+$24 million), and the Farm Service Agency (+$14 million), and by reducing the use of rescissions and limits on mandatory programs (-$672 million; see Table 3 ). The House Agriculture appropriations subcommittee marked up its FY2013 bill by voice vote on June 6, 2012. The full House Appropriations committee reported the bill ( H.R. 5973 , H.Rept. 112-542 ) by voice vote on June 19, 2012. On June 21, the Rules Committee met to report an open rule for floor consideration ( H.Res. 697 ). The rule was adopted on June 26 to allow consideration of the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill, also part of H.Res. 697 , but action on the Agriculture bill was postponed because of expected action on the farm bill. The House-reported bill would have reduced discretionary Agriculture appropriations to $19.4 billion, a cut of $365 million from FY2012 levels, after adjusting for the inclusion of disaster provisions in FY2012 ( Table 2 ). Without this adjustment, the House-reported discretionary amount was about $675 million (-3.3%) below FY2012. The House bill would have differed from FY2012 and the Senate bill primarily by decreasing rural development (-$153 million from FY2012, -$204 million from the Senate), international food aid (-$324 million from FY2012 and the Senate bill), agricultural research (-$35 million from FY2012, -$99 million from the Senate bill), the Farm Service Agency (-$35 million from FY2012, -$50 million from the Senate bill), animal and plant health programs (-$30 million from FY2012 and the Senate bill), the CFTC (-$25 million from FY2012, -$128 million from the Senate bill), the FDA (-$25 million from FY2012, -$50 million from the Senate bill), and discretionary conservation programs (-$16 million from FY2012, -$2 million from the Senate bill); and by increasing discretionary domestic nutrition programs (+$295 million from FY2012, -$143 million from the Senate bill) and reducing the use of limits on mandatory programs (-$154 million from FY2012, +$403 million over the Senate bill; see Table 3 ). The House bill also has policy-related provisions that would have removed a 2011 livestock and poultry marketing rule, tightened farm commodity program payment limits, and required USDA to allow white potatoes for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) feeding program. The Administration opposed the cuts in the House bill, particularly to CFTC, rural development, renewable energy, domestic nutrition, food safety, and international food aid, and opposes the programmatic restrictions on the livestock and poultry marketing rule, as well as the WIC program. . After years of growth, discretionary Agriculture appropriations peaked in absolute terms in FY2010, although mandatory nutrition spending continues to rise. This section offers perspective on type of funding (mandatory or discretionary), purpose (nutrition vs. other), and relationships to inflation, GDP, and the federal budget. The proposed amounts for FY2013 in H.R. 5973 and S. 2375 are the bases for comparison throughout most of this section. Figure 1 shows the Agriculture appropriations bill divided between mandatory and discretionary spending. Mandatory appropriations, accounting for about 85% of the total, have a 10-year average annual growth of +7.9%, while discretionary appropriations show a +0.8% average annual growth rate over 10 years to the amount in the House bill (+1.6% average annual growth rate to the amount in the Senate bill). The total (mandatory plus discretionary) reflects a +6.5% average annual increase over 10 years. Figure 2 shows the same bill total as in Figure 1 , but divided between domestic nutrition and other program spending. The share going to nutrition has risen from 46% in FY2000 to about 75% in the FY2013 proposals. Over the past 10 years, total nutrition spending has increased at an average rate of about +9.8% per year, compared to a +0.3% average annual change for the "rest of the bill" in the House bill (+0.8% for the Senate bill; including the rest of USDA but excluding the Forest Service, plus FDA and CFTC). Nutrition spending has increased even faster in the more recent five-year period. Figure 3 shows just the discretionary appropriations levels in the Agriculture appropriations bill, divided between domestic nutrition programs and the rest of the bill. Figure 4 shows just the mandatory appropriations amounts. Table 4 presents the data in these graphs and Table 5 shows the average annual growth rates from various years in the past to FY2013 (in both actual and inflation-adjusted terms). The totals can also be viewed in inflation-adjusted terms ( Table 6 ) and against other economic variables ( Table 7 ). If the general level of inflation is subtracted, total Agriculture appropriations show positive "real" growth—that is, growth above the rate of inflation ( Figure 5 ). The total has increased at an average annual real rate of about +4.2% over the past 10 years. Nutrition programs have increased at an average annual real rate of +7.4%, while the "rest of the bill" shows a -1.9% average annual real decline over 10 years. Similarly, mandatory spending shows positive real growth over 10 years, while discretionary spending is flat to a small real decline. Relative to the entire federal budget, the Agriculture bill's share declined from 4.4% of the federal budget in FY1995 to 2.7% in FY2009, before rising again to nearly 3.9% in FY2013 ( Figure 6 ). The share for nutrition programs had declined from 2.6% in FY1995 to 1.8% in FY2008, but the recent recession has caused that share to rise to 2.9% for FY2013. The share for the rest of the bill has declined from 1.8% in FY1995 and 2.1% in FY2001 to about 1% for FY2013. As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), Agriculture appropriations had been fairly steady at under 0.75% of GDP, but have risen since FY2008 to about 0.87% of GDP ( Figure 7 ).