The budget asks for $28.5 billion in discretionary funding for the USDA
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
President Biden’s fiscal budget for 2023 calls for additional funding for the United States Department of Agriculture.
Of the $5.8 trillion budget the president released this week, he requested $28.5 billion in discretionary funding. If approved, this would represent a 17.1 percent increase from the 2021 enacted funding level.
Here’s how some of the USDA funding would be allocated:
- The USDA would use $1.77 billion to address climate change across private farmland, and another $1 billion to support farmers and landowners who implement conservation and climate-friendly practices.
- $935 million to help bring high-speed internet to rural communities and $300 million to bring affordable electric power to those communities.
- $4 billion for USDA’s research, education and outreach programs to help farmers “leverage new technologies to compete in world markets.”
- At least $10 million for the oversight and enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act.
- $885 million for technical assistance for farmers enrolled in USDA conservation programs.
The budget represents the Biden-Harris Administration’s dedication to support farmers and rural communities, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
“The President’s budget provides USDA with the tools needed to support a vibrant, revitalized, and prosperous rural America,” he said in a March 28 statement. “It contains transformational investments that will help rural communities build resilience to the climate crisis, increase landscape resiliency to the impacts of climate change, create more and better markets for our hardworking producers, bolster access to healthy and affordable nutrition for families, help connect all Americans to high-speed, affordable, and reliable internet, strengthen USDA’s efforts to build equitable systems and programming, and position the United States to be a leader in agricultural research.”
Republican lawmakers, however, don’t view the budget the same way.
The president isn’t directing USDA funding properly, said Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
“The vision President Biden has laid out for USDA is fraught with misplaced priorities,” he said in a March 28 statement. “Food inflation is higher than it has been in over 40 years. The international community is bracing for global food shortages. Yet the president remains focused on his climate agenda rather than the needs of our agriculture community and hardworking families struggling to put food on the table.”
Organizations representing rural communities and farmers support parts of the budget proposal.
The increased funding for technical assistance, for example, is good for producers, said Karlee Olson, policy associate for the Center for Rural Affairs.
“Conservation technical assistance is vital to the success of producers’ conservation efforts,” she said in a March 29 statement. “As farmers and ranchers are called to assist in addressing climate change through improved soil health, resources are necessary to support them along the way.”
Farms.com has contacted U.S. commodity groups for comment on the budget proposal.