The fiscal 2009 budget faced bipartisan backlash yesterday at the Senate's first hearing on the request.
Members from both sides of the aisle of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee agreed that next year's farm budget will need more money than the Bush administration has requested.
The White House's USDA budget request included a boost for mandatory food assistance programs but cut discretionary spending at the agency by 4.8 percent. The administration requested a total of $17.3 billion for discretionary programs, down $400 million from last year.
"I have to assume you were told to hold the line on spending, but I must say this budget doesn't have any highlights," subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) said.
Two of the hardest hit areas of the budget would be research and conservation, and lawmakers criticized the decreases to both. Overall, conservation programs would each see budget cuts of almost 15 percent.
Within the conservation budget, the White House continued its annual effort to zero out funding for discretionary programs it says are redundant, including local watershed surveys and flood prevention programs. The administration has tried to eliminate the programs in previous years, but congressional appropriators have restored them each year.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) indicated his intent to do the same this year. He said he wants to restore funding for conservation, watersheds and the healthy forest reserve program. House appropriators have said the same at their hearings on the budget.
The Senate panel was also critical of cuts to USDA research funding, which goes toward a wide range of programs, from livestock safety to farm-based energy, cellulosic ethanol, biotechnology and food safety. The budget wipes out congressional earmarks for research and cuts overall spending on research by 10 percent.
Appropriations Committee ranking member Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) noted that Congress often increases support for research and other programs -- and this year's spending bill would likely not be any different.
"You won't be surprised it you see us increasing those numbers," Cochran said of the research budget.
The subcommittee's top Republican, Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), agreed. And Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) said the research cuts could impede efforts to develop new biofuels from farm products.
"The kind of research that keeps pushing us to the cutting edge is phenomenally important, I don't think your budget represents that," Craig said.
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer took in each lawmaker's complaints without direct objection. He defended the overall budget request as a part of the administration's effort to squeeze priorities and balance federal spending across agencies.
"Recognize that we do have some constraints, we have to make sure we play a part in the balanced budget," Schafer told the panel.
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