A group of hard-line conservatives is threatening to derail the fiscal 2024 appropriations process in the House, further clouding prospects for an agreement on spending with the Senate later this year, including legislation funding USDA and FDA.
Some 21 members of the House Freedom Caucus have signed a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., insisting that overall spending for FY24 be cut to the FY22 level of $1.47 trillion, and without the use of funding rescissions to exceed that limit.
The lawmakers also say they won’t vote for any of the 12 fiscal 2024 appropriations bills until all of them move through committee.
The FY24 bills that have been moving through the House Appropriations Committee over the past month, including the $25.3 billion measure for USDA and FDA, already face strong Democratic opposition because of the cuts they would make to a variety of programs. Republicans only control the House 222-212, so the Freedom Caucus could likely block any or all of the bills on the floor if its members choose to do so.
“Americans expect House Republicans to lead in divided government to achieve tangible results,” says the letter from the Freedom Caucus members. “They expect us to go beyond the theater of hearings, messaging bills that die in the Senate, or very modest spending limits in the wake of record inflationary spending levels.”
The letter doesn’t represent an official position of the Freedom Caucus, but caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., lent the document his signature. House Ag Committee members Mary Miller, R-Ill., and Barry Moore, R-Ala., also are among the signers.
Notably missing from the letter is Freedom Caucus member Andy Harris of Maryland, who chairs the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.
The Agriculture bill produced by Harris’ subcommittee came in at $25.3 billion, just above the FY22 level of $25.1 billion, and the legislation includes $8 billion in rescissions to funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act and unspent pandemic assistance. (The House bill includes $345 million in FY24 funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as well as the USDA and FDA budgets.)
The intraparty conflict is raising the stakes for congressional leaders this fall. After this week, the House and Senate are only scheduled to be in session two more weeks this month before breaking until after Labor Day.
Congress will have to pass a continuing resolution to keep departments and agencies funded after the new fiscal year starts Oct. 1 or there will be a partial government shutdown.
The path forward for appropriations bills in the Senate is also cloudy. Although the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the USDA-FDA funding bill June 22, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., didn’t mention appropriations bills when he laid out the Senate’s July agenda on Tuesday.
While McCarthy is likely to need Democratic votes to eventually pass the FY24 spending bills, the new Freedom Caucus demands raise fresh questions about how insistent he will have to be on GOP spending and policy priorities, said a longtime lobbyist with Democratic ties.
For example, the Senate’s FY24 Agriculture spending bill has bipartisan support and is funded in line with the debt ceiling agreement. The Senate version, which doesn’t include CFTC funding, would cost $26 billion.
One of the largest differences between the House and Senate funding bills is that the Senate version would continue funding for fruit and vegetable benefits provided to participants in the Women, Infants and Children nutrition assistance program. The House would eliminate the increased benefits, which range from $25 a month for children to $49 a month for breastfeeding mothers.
The policy riders in the House bill include ones that would block USDA from issuing a series of rules intended to restrict contracting practices and increase competition in the meat and poultry sectors. Another rider would require USDA to set up five pilot projects that restrict the use of SNAP benefits to nutrient-dense foods and beverages.
“You've just got philosophical differences between the House and the Senate,” said the lobbyist, who didn’t want to be identified. “It is going to be a big question as to how the chairs and ranking members of House and Senate Appropriations work that out.”
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“And we'll see to what extent the speaker wants to be more insistent on things because of what he's hearing from members of the Freedom Caucus, and whether or not they're threatening him with anything else,” the lobbyist added.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)Here is a look at some differences between the House and Senate spending bills for USDA and FDA:
Agricultural research: USDA’s Agricultural Research Service would get a small increase under the Senate bill but would be slightly reduced under the House bill. The FY23 funding level is $1.82 billion. The House bill would provide $1.76 billion; the Senate bill $1.88 billion. The difference between the bills is largely in funding for facilities.
Both bills would make small cuts in the funding provided by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to land grant universities and other institutions. The FY23 funding level is $1.094 billion; the House and Senate would provide about $1.085 billion.
Conservation: The annual appropriations bills help fund conservation technical assistance for farmers alongside funding from farm bill conservation programs. The House bill would cut the conservation operations account at USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service to $893 million from the $918 million allocated for FY23. The Senate bill would provide $922 million.
Food safety: USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service would be funded at $1.197 billion in FY24 under the House bill, an increase from $1.158 billion this year but just below the $1.205 billion in the Senate version.
International food aid: The bills would make slight changes in funding for the Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole international school feeding programs. Food for Peace would get $1.8 billion in FY24 under the Senate bill, compared to the $1.75 billion allocated this year, while the House would trim the program by $10 million.
The McGovern-Dole program would be cut $3 million to $240 million under the House bill. The Senate bill would increase the program to $248.3 million.
Rural broadband: Both bills would slash funding for USDA’s ReConnect loan and grant program. The program was funded at $348 million this year. The House bill would cut the program to $260 million. The Senate bill would reduce it to $98 million. Not counted in the annual appropriation amounts is $2 billion in special ReConnect funding that was provided through the 2021 infrastructure bill.
WIC: The House bill would eliminate the special benefit for fruits and vegetables, and fund the nutrition program at $6 billion in FY24, the same level as this year and $300 million below the amount the White House requested. The Senate bill would fund the program at $6.3 billion.
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