President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for fiscal 2023 would boost Agriculture Department spending by 9%, including significant increases for agricultural research and conservation technical assistance and a new round of funding for rural broadband expansion.
The $3.1 billion budget proposal for USDA earmarks $1.8 billion for climate-related programs, including $300 million in new funding for loans to convert rural electric cooperatives to clean energy sources.
The new fiscal year starts Oct. 1. The USDA budget request doesn't include the $165 billion estimated cost of nutrition assistance, commodity subsidies, federal crop insurance and other programs where spending levels are determined by eligibility under laws such as the farm bill.
The FY23 budget earmarks funding to address equity and diversity issues as well as to crack down on marketing practices in the meat and processing sector. The budget proposes an additional $10 million for oversight of the Packers and Stockyards Act to implement and enforce three new rules that will be issued by FY23, a USDA budget official said.
The budget includes $4 billion for agricultural research programs, up from the $3.5 billion they are getting for FY22, and $644 million over what was provided in FY21. The Agricultural Research Service, USDA’s in-house research arm, would get $238 million more, including $109 million earmarked for climate science, the official said.
The Natural Resources Conservation Service, which administers the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Conservation Stewardship Program, would get slightly over $1 billion for conservation technical assistance for FY23, up from $832 million in FY22, to go with the $1.7 billion estimated to be available in FY23 from funding pools for EQIP, CSP and other farm bill programs. The combination of funding sources would pay for an estimated 11,746 NRCS personnel in FY23, an increase of 655 over FY22.
NRCS would use $18 million of the funding increase for technical assistance for expanding its greenhouse gas monitoring. Some $50 million is earmarked for assisting socially disadvantaged farmers, veterans and beginning producers.