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U.S. Dept. of Agriculture R&D in FY 2008 Final Appropriations PDF
version of this document Main
R&D in the FY 2008 Budget Page
Supplemental
Materials: "House and Senate
Add Funds to Agriculture R&D," AAAS R&D Funding Update on R&D
in FY 2008 House and Senate USDA Appropriations "USDA
R&D Falls in 2008 Budget," AAAS R&D Funding Update on R&D
in the FY 2008 USDA Budget AAAS
Analysis of R&D in the FY 2008 Budget -
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Congress added hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D earmarks to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) to give the USDA R&D portfolio a slight increase
in 2008 for a total of $2.3 billion (up 2.0 percent; see Table).
- On the extramural side, the National Research
Initiative (NRI) of competitively awarded research grants would remain flat at
$191 million, well short of the $257 million request. Hatch Act funding would fall from an unexpectedly
large $323 million 2007 appropriation to $196 million in 2008. After a one-year
moratorium in 2007, congressionally designated projects (earmarks) would return
to the tune of $92 million for Special Research Grants earmarks and $18 million
in other extramural research earmarks. - Intramural agricultural R&D in the Agricultural
Research Service (ARS) would gain 3.2 percent or $37 million to $1.2 billion (see
Table). The return of earmarks in 2008 after a one-year moratorium in 2007 would
cut into non-earmarked R&D funding. USDA R&D
in FY 2008 Final Appropriations On December 26, President Bush signed into law
the FY 2008 omnibus appropriations bill (HR 2764) that had cleared Congress a
week earlier, bringing the 2008 appropriations process to a close. The omnibus
bill included a final version of the FY 2008 Agriculture appropriations bill.
Last February,
the Bush Administration once again proposed to reduce the USDA R&D budget,
but in a change from past budgets the cuts would have been from reductions in
core R&D programs rather than the proposed eliminations of earmarks. Most
years, Congress inserts hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D funding for
congressionally designated, performer specific R&D projects (earmarks), which
USDA proposes to cancel in the following year. But in the 2007 budget, finalized
in February, Congress chose not to earmark so the 2008 budget’s proposed cuts
were cuts to non-earmarked funding, an 11 percent or $247 million decline in USDA
R&D down to $2.0 billion. But thanks to the return of congressional earmarks
in 2008, USDA R&D would increase $45 million or 2.0 percent to $2.3 billion
(see Table), $292 million more than the request.
$264 million or 90 percent of the money added to USDA’s request would be in the
form of R&D earmarks, in both the intramural and extramural accounts. In USDA’s external portfolio, a sharp reduction
in Hatch Act funding allows for the return of earmarked projects. USDA’s extramural
research grants, nearly entirely to colleges and universities, are administered
by the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES). Total
CSREES R&D would remain flat at $654 million in 2008 instead of a steep requested
cut. Within the flat budget, The National Research Initiative, USDA’s main
competitive research grants program, would also see remain flat at $191 million,
and competitive grants in Integrated Grants would also stay at $26 million,
close to the 2007 funding level. Special Research Grants (SRG) return in 2008, after
zero funding in 2007. SRG funding of $92 million in 2008 would go to 189 performer-specific
agricultural research projects and 2 competitively awarded projects. In addition,
there are 27 earmarked research projects in other parts of the CSREES budget.
In all, earmarks would make up $110 million of CSREES R&D, or 17 percent of
the 2008 final appropriation. 
Figure 1. (click on the image
for PDF)
Funding for formula programs would decline sharply
in 2008, crowded out by the return of earmarks, but there could be further
cuts under the surface. The Hatch Act, the largest funding source for formula-distributed
research funds to the nation’s land-grant universities, received a surprising
boost to an unprecedented funding level of $323 million in the final 2007 appropriation,
nearly double the funding levels of 2006 and earlier years. Congress appropriates
$196 million in 2008, down dramatically from 2007 but high compared to the roughly
$180 million funding levels of previous years. But below the surface, it appears
that USDA would greatly expand the portion of Hatch Act funding going to competitively
awarded grants. Currently, 25 percent of Hatch Act funding goes to multi-state
research projects; USDA proposes to expand that share to 60 percent, of which
38 percent would be competitively awarded. It is unclear when USDA will fully
phase in this expansion, but the move signals that Hatch Act funding is transitioning
from traditional individual state formula research funds toward a mix of formula
and competitive funding. Most of USDA’s intramural research is performed
in the Agricultural Research Service (ARS). ARS R&D would gain $37 million or 3.2 percent to $1.2 billion in 2008
(see Table), in contrast to a steep requested cut
of $146 million. But R&D earmarks totaling $148 million make up the entire
amount and more that Congress would add to the request. In
Buildings and Facilities, USDA would provide no funding in 2007 nor in the 2008
request for intramural construction projects, but Congress allocated $47 million
in the final 2008 appropriation for earmarked construction projects. In Salaries
and Expenses (S&E), which funds research projects, the congressional appropriation
of $1.1 billion, down 0.9 percent, includes $102 million set aside for specific
projects. The other major USDA R&D agency is the Forest
Service, whose R&D budget would increase by nearly 5 percent to $337 million
in 2008. Although the primary focus of its R&D portfolio is forestry and ecosystems
research, in recent years the Forest Service has emphasized its fire science and
wildfire management research portfolio as well. Most of this research is performed
in intramural laboratories, although there is also a growing external, competitively
awarded research program. The FY 2008
USDA R&D appropriation would stabilize funding at 2007 levels in real terms,
after dramatic reductions in recent years from record highs (see Figure 1).
Since hitting a low in FY 1996, the funding trend had been generally upward, first
because the federal budget surplus made more discretionary funds available to
congressional appropriators, then in FY 2000 and FY 2001 from the release of mandatory
competitive research funds, and since FY 2002 because heightened concern about
agricultural terrorism and the security of USDA laboratories resulted in millions
for security upgrades and other homeland security-related investments. Those needs
have waned, and thus funding has fallen. There had been a steady increase in congressionally
earmarked projects, but the lack of earmarks brought 2007 R&D funding down
dramatically. The 2008 congressional appropriation brings back earmarks, but keeps
R&D funding flat at the non-earmarked 2007 funding level. Nearly two thirds of USDA R&D is performed
in USDA’s own laboratories. ARS, Forest Service, and ERS funding goes almost exclusively
to intramural laboratories, while the slightly greater than one quarter of USDA
R&D funding going to universities and colleges comes from CSREES. These proportions
have been stable in recent years because of the division of labor between ARS
and CSREES in funding external and internal research, but this stability could
change in calendar year 2008 if Congress finalizes a new farm bill that restructures
the USDA research portfolio. -
January 3, 2008
AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program
1200 New York Avenue,
NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-6607
AAAS R&D Web site: http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd
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