Congress periodically establishes agricultural and food policy in an omnibus farm bill. Federal farm commodity price and income support, conservation, food assistance, agricultural trade, marketing, and rural development policies are governed by a variety of separate laws. However, many of these laws are regularly evaluated, revised, and renewed through an omnibus, multi-year farm bill. These policies can be, and sometimes are, modified or overhauled as freestanding authorizing legislation, or as part of other laws. However, periodic farm bills have provided Congress, the Administration, and interest groups with an opportunity to reexamine agriculture and food issues more carefully, and address them more comprehensively. The most recent omnibus farm bill is the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 ( P.L. 110-246 , the 2008 farm bill), and many of its provisions expire in 2012. Without new legislation, notably in the area of farm commodity support programs, permanent statutes would take effect. Most of these statutes were enacted decades ago and are no longer compatible with current national economic objectives, global trading rules, and federal budgetary or regulatory policies. These largely outdated permanent laws have been kept on the books by Congress in part to compel increasingly urban and suburban future Congresses to pay attention to national agricultural policy. For most other topics addressed in the farm bill, the authority to appropriate funds would end, and in some cases all program authority could terminate. Traditionally, the primary focus of every omnibus farm bill has been farm commodity price and income support policy—namely, the methods and levels of support that the federal government provides to agricultural producers. However, farm bills typically include titles on agricultural trade and foreign food aid, conservation and environment, forestry, domestic food assistance, agricultural credit, rural development, agricultural research and education, animal agriculture, and marketing-related programs, among others. In recent farm bills, titles have been added to address emerging issues such as agriculture-based biofuels, specialty crops (fruits and vegetables), and organic agriculture. (See the Appendix at the end of this report for a complete list of titles and subtitles of the 2008 farm bill.) The omnibus nature of the farm bill creates a broad coalition of support among sometimes conflicting interests for policies that, individually, might not survive the legislative process. Among the groups lobbying Congress are farm and commodity organizations; input suppliers; commodity handlers, processors, exporters, retailers, foreign customers, and competitors; universities and scientific organizations; domestic consumers and food assistance advocates; environmentalists; local and regional producers; and rural communities, to name a few. So, for example, farm state lawmakers may seek urban legislators' backing for commodity price supports in exchange for votes on domestic food aid—and vice versa. Farm bill titles also are growing increasingly integrated. The conservation title, for example, includes provisions that affect commodity programs, and some of the commodity provisions likewise affect conservation. This integration means that one cannot simply look at a single title for all provisions that affect the topic of the title. As the 112 th Congress considers reauthorization of the next farm bill, it does so in an economic setting of high farm commodity prices and income and an austere federal budget that calls for deficit reduction. This combination of events has drawn into question whether the current farm safety net should be restructured or portions eliminated (e.g., direct payments), with the limited available financial resources possibly redirected to other initiatives. Proponents of the current approach to farm commodity support want a stronger safety net, with many focusing on enhancements to risk management tools. Opponents of the status quo often cite cost and budget concerns. Some point to other competing policy priorities, including equitability concerns across the farm sector, and call for enhanced support for small and medium-sized farms, specialty crops, organic agriculture, local and regional food systems, healthy and nutritious foods, research, conservation, and rural development, among other topics. For more background on the nature of the farm bill and the major provisions in the enacted 2008 farm bill, see CRS Report RS22131, What Is the "Farm Bill"? and CRS Report RL34696, The 2008 Farm Bill: Major Provisions and Legislative Action . This report begins by reviewing the budget and economic setting for the next farm bill debate, and follows with background on each of the major titles of the current farm bill and a preview of some of the potential issues that could factor into the debate. Federal spending is divided into mandatory and discretionary spending. Mandatory spending in the farm bill is primarily authorized for the farm commodity programs, crop insurance, nutrition assistance programs, and some conservation and trade programs. Discretionary spending (i.e., spending subject to annual appropriations) is authorized for essentially everything else, including other conservation programs, most rural development programs, research and education programs, and agricultural credit. Various smaller research, bioenergy, and rural development programs sometimes secure some mandatory funding, but most of their funding is discretionary. In addition to determining the policy direction for farm bill programs, the farm bill also "pays" for mandatory spending when it is used. This is done under the jurisdiction of authorizing committees, using resources available under budget rules. On the other hand, discretionary programs that are authorized in the farm bill are paid for separately in annual appropriations bills under the jurisdiction of the appropriations committees. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) develops baseline projections for mandatory spending (direct spending) under the supervision of the House and Senate Budget Committees within a framework of various budget enforcement laws. This process sets the mandatory budget for the farm bill. The baseline projection is an estimate at a particular point in time of what federal spending on mandatory programs likely would be under current law. From a budget perspective, programs with a continuing baseline are assumed to go on under current law, and have their own funding if policymakers want them to continue. However, some programs may not be assumed to continue in the budget baseline beyond the end of a farm bill, and can continue only if their cost is offset. The baseline thus serves as a benchmark or starting point for the farm bill budget. When new provisions are introduced that affect mandatory spending, their impact (or "score") is measured as a difference from the baseline. Increases in cost above the baseline may be subject to budget constraints such as pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) requirements. Reductions from the baseline may be used to offset other provisions or to reduce the deficit. The January 2012 CBO baseline for continuing mandatory farm bill programs is about $994 billion for the 10-year period FY2013-FY2022 ( Figure 1 ). Most of this baseline ($772 billion, or 78%) is for domestic nutrition assistance programs, primarily the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The rest, about $222 billion, is divided among various agriculture-related programs, primarily crop insurance ($90 billion), farm commodity price and income supports ($62 billion), and conservation ($65 billion). These estimates do not include any reductions for sequestration (across-the-board cuts). CBO will issue an updated baseline in March 2012 that will become the official scoring baseline for a potential 2012 farm bill. The budget situation is more difficult and uncertain this year than for past farm bills because of the attention to the federal debt. How much of the above baseline can be used to write a farm bill and how much will remain for 2013 and beyond is unknown, given the uncertainty about deficit reduction that is beyond the control of the agriculture committees and may not be resolved for months. Several high-profile congressional and administration proposals for deficit reduction are specifically targeting agricultural programs with mandatory funding. To date, none of these plans has been enacted ( Table 2 ). Discretionary appropriations for agricultural programs also have fallen in recent years, further affecting farm bill opportunities. The discretionary agriculture appropriation decreased by 14% in FY2011 and another 2% in FY2012. More imminently, given the failure of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to enact budget reductions by January 15, 2012, budget sequestration is forthcoming in 2013 under the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; P.L. 112-25 , Sec. 302). The budget sequestration process under the BCA will reduce the future baseline for farm bill programs, even if legislation is not enacted to specifically change or reduce the programs. Certain farm bill programs, such as the nutrition programs and the Conservation Reserve Program, are statutorily exempt from sequestration. Other programs, including prior obligations in crop insurance and marketing loan contracts, may be exempt; however, CBO does not determine the official sequestration amount or the scope of programs included. Those decisions rest with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) interpretation of the BCA and statutes, and are still forthcoming. No official estimate has been released, but many believe sequestration of mandatory farm bill programs may total about $16 billion over 10 years. This is consistent with CBO estimates of nearly 8% sequestration on nondefense mandatory programs on roughly $200 billion of nonexempt agriculture baseline. The budget picture is further clouded by other factors. While some programs (like most farm subsidies and nutrition assistance) have assumed future funding, other programs (mostly newer ones) do not. Thirty-seven programs that received mandatory funding throughout nearly all titles of the 2008 farm bill do not continue to have assured funding for the next farm bill. Three of these programs—the agricultural disaster assistance program, the Wetlands Reserve Program, and the Biomass Crop Assistance Program—account for about three-fourths of the affected amount. Continuing these programs could cost about $10 billion over five years, an additional cost that would need to be offset from other programs. This could be doubly difficult during a simultaneous contraction from sequestration or deficit reduction. Also, new pay-as-you-go budget rules enacted in 2010 ( P.L.