PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Farm Bill Includes New and Increased Plant-Based Research Efforts

The enacted Farm Bill includes increased emphasis on plant-related bioenergy research as well as research on specialty crops.

The Energy Title provision for the Biomass Research and Development Initiative provides $118 million cumulatively from 2009 to 2012 in mandatory funding for the continuation of the Biomass Research and Development Initiative, which has funded ASPB member researchers and other researchers. This figure represents approximately a doubling over current support. The mandatory funding is $20 million in 2009, $28 million in 2010, $30 million in 2011, and $40 million in 2012.

The authorizing committee (the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee) provides the actual dollars needed when it provides mandatory money, without going to the Appropriations Committee for spending dollars. However, appropriators have sometimes viewed such actions negatively and at times have refused to spend mandatory dollars for research. We do not know at this point how appropriators will act on the mandatory funding proposed for the Biomass Research and Development Initiative. In addition to the mandatory funds, the Farm Bill authorizes $35 million in discretionary funds each year from 2009 through 2012.

The Research Title includes the new Agricultural Bioenergy Feedstock and Energy Efficiency Research and Extension Initiative, which is authorized at $50 million for fiscal years 2008 through 2012. This is authorized money and does not include mandatory money, so its chances of receiving funding are less than if mandatory money was provided. ASPB met with Dr. Gale Buchanan, undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics at the USDA, last summer and again in the fall before the USDA’s release of its research proposals for the Farm Bill. ASPB noted to Buchanan in both meetings that a bioenergy research proposal for the Farm Bill is needed and that Congress will expect such a proposal.

The Specialty Crop Research Initiative in the Research Title is funded with $30 million in mandatory funds for fiscal year 2008 and $50 million each year in mandatory funds from 2009 through 2012. The use of mandatory funds increases the prospects that this new research program will receive the spending dollars needed. In addition to the mandatory funds, a total of $100 million for each of fiscal years 2009 through 2012 is authorized. It is hard to predict if a portion of the authorized funds will be appropriated, although there is strong support for specialty crop research. Both the House and the Senate have voted to override the president’s veto of the Farm Bill, and it is now law.