The Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018 would amend and extend some of the nation’s major programs for income support, food and nutrition, land conservation, trade promotion, rural development, research, forestry, horticulture, and other miscellaneous programs administered by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) for five years through 2023.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2 would increase net direct spending by $3.2 billion over the 2019-2023 period and by $0.5 billion over the 2019-2028 period, relative to CBO’s baseline projections. As specified in law, those baseline projections incorporate the assumption that many expiring programs continue to operate after their authorizations expire in the same manner as they did before such expiration. The cost of extending those authorizations through 2023 would total $387 billion, but because they are already included in the baseline, those costs are not attributable to this bill. CBO also estimates that enacting the bill would increase revenues by $0.5 billion over the 2019-2028 period.
In addition, H.R. 2 would authorize the appropriation of specific amounts, mostly for a wide variety of existing and new USDA programs. Assuming appropriation of the specified amounts, CBO estimates that implementing those provisions would cost $24.3 billion over the 2019-2023 period.
Because enacting H.R. 2 would affect direct spending and revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures apply.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 2 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2029.
H.R. 2 would impose intergovernmental and private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). In the aggregate, CBO estimates, the costs of mandates on public entities would exceed the annual threshold established in UMRA for intergovernmental mandates ($80 million in 2018, adjusted annually for inflation) in at least four of the first five years that the mandates were in effect. The costs of mandates on private entities would be below the annual threshold established in UMRA for private-sector mandates ($160 million in 2018, adjusted annually for inflation).
