The Nutrition Title is by far the largest, representing nearly 77 percent of all farm bill direct funding in the new bill. The Big Fourįour titles of the 12-title farm bill receive the lion’s share when it comes to direct funding – nutrition programs (primarily the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP), commodity programs, federal crop insurance, and conservation. Closely adhering to the baseline dollar amounts only means that when considering farm bill funding as a whole and on a net basis, there is very modest change.
However, that does not mean that money does not shift within the bill and between titles of the bill. The new bill includes $1.8 billion in additional spending relative to baseline over the next 5 years, but more or less matches the baseline over the 10-year window. These final totals very closely match the budget “baseline” dollars (current spending projections, prior to the new bill becoming law, without any changes in policy or programs) with which the farm bill’s authors had to work. The new bill is estimated to spend $428.3 billion over its 5-year lifespan, and $867.2 billion over the 10-year time frame by which all bills are measured per congressional budget rules. In this post, we provide a high-level overview of some key spending pieces included in the 2018 Farm Bill. Because mandatory funding provided by authorizing legislation is substantially larger than appropriated funds, which programs receive mandatory funding and how much is always a contentious issue in farm bill debates. The farm bill is complex package of legislation – like other authorizing bills, the bill’s primary focus is on policies and programs, but unlike many authorization bills, the farm bill also provides direct funding for many of the programs it authorizes. Farm bill programs, therefore, have two ways to receive funding: mandatory (or direct) funding through the farm bill, and annual funding through the appropriations process.