Farm bill costs $956.4 billion, saves $23 billion
January 29, 2014 | 01:49 AM
House and Senate aides late Tuesday pointed out that the Congressional Budget Office had said the Agricultural Act of 2014 will cost $956.4 billion over 10 years, but save $23 billion over 10 years if the budget savings under the sequester are included.
The aides made the point because the CBO analysis released earlier shows savings totaling $16.6 billion over 10 years.
“Because agricultural programs were in the last year of authorization during the implementation of the sequester, budget rules resulted in the agriculture baseline (the baseline on which the Agricultural Act of 2014 was developed) being reduced by $6.4 billion to account for a full 10 years of sequestration,” the aides said.
(All other mandatory baselines were not affected in this way).
“Taking both reductions into consideration, mandatory spending on farm bill programs will be reduced by an estimated $23 billion over the next 10 years,” they said, adding that if the sequester remains in place there could be additional savings.
“This farm bill ensures that, including sequester, the bill will yield a total of $23 billion in cuts to program spending — meaning the agriculture committees have met their deficit reduction goal,” one aide said.
Broken down, the bill cuts the following:
The aides made the point because the CBO analysis released earlier shows savings totaling $16.6 billion over 10 years.
“Because agricultural programs were in the last year of authorization during the implementation of the sequester, budget rules resulted in the agriculture baseline (the baseline on which the Agricultural Act of 2014 was developed) being reduced by $6.4 billion to account for a full 10 years of sequestration,” the aides said.
(All other mandatory baselines were not affected in this way).
“Taking both reductions into consideration, mandatory spending on farm bill programs will be reduced by an estimated $23 billion over the next 10 years,” they said, adding that if the sequester remains in place there could be additional savings.
“This farm bill ensures that, including sequester, the bill will yield a total of $23 billion in cuts to program spending — meaning the agriculture committees have met their deficit reduction goal,” one aide said.
Broken down, the bill cuts the following:
- Farm programs: $18.4 billion
- Conservation: $6.1 billion
- Nutrition: $8 billion
