T he farm bill is an omnibus, multiyear law that governs an array of agricultural and food programs. It provides an opportunity for Congress to choose how much support to provide for agriculture and nutrition and how to allocate it among competing constituencies. The farm bill has typically undergone reauthorization about every five years. The current farm bill—the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 ( P.L. 2 ), often called the "2018 farm bill"—was enacted in December 2018 and expires in 2023. The 2014 farm bill (the Agricultural Act of 2014, P.L. 115-334 ) was held to a budget-neutral position over its 10-year budget window. From a budgetary perspective, many of the larger programs are assumed to continue beyond the end of a farm bill, even though their authorizations to operate may expire. Discretionary spending is authorized throughout the farm bill, including most rural development, credit, and research programs, among others. Therefore, the majority of this report focuses on mandatory spending

		Summary of Projected Outlays in the 2018 Farm Bill

 Figure 1 illustrates the distribution of the $428 billion five-year total of projected mandatory outlays at enactment for the life of the 2018 farm bill (FY2019-FY2023). Importance of Baseline to the Farm Bill

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) baseline is a projection at a particular point in time of future federal spending on mandatory programs under current law. When a new bill is proposed that would affect mandatory spending, the score (cost impact) is measured in relation to the baseline. Changes that increase spending relative to the baseline have a positive score; those that decrease spending relative to the baseline have a negative score. Most of the 10-year amount, 77%, was in the Nutrition title for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Other titles of the farm bill contributed about 1% of the baseline, some of which are funded primarily with discretionary spending. Scores of the 2018 Farm Bill

The CBO score measures the budgetary impact of changes made by the 2018 farm bill. It is measured relative to its benchmark—the CBO baseline. Budget enforcement procedures follow an array of federal budget rules, such as "PayGo," which required budgetary offsets to balance new spending to avoid increasing the federal deficit. Although the farm bill is a five-year authorization—the 2018 farm bill covers FY2019-FY2023—budget rules required it to be scored over a 10-year budget window. Six titles in the law have increased outlays over the 10-year period, including Commodities, Trade, Research, Energy, Horticulture, and Miscellaneous. The enacted farm bill increases net outlays in the first five years by $1.8 billion, which is offset by the same amount of net reductions in outlays during the second five years. Therefore, the 10-year net score is budget neutral. In the enacted law, the Conservation and Nutrition titles—which have increases in outlays over the first five years—have decreases during the second five years. Outcome for the Programs Without Baseline

For 23 of the 39 of the "programs without baseline" from the 2014 farm bill, the 2018 farm bill provides continuing funding and, in some cases, permanent baseline for future farm bills (see the footnotes in Table 3 ). The remaining 24%, $102 billion of projected outlays, is for agricultural programs, mostly in crop insurance (8.9%), farm commodity programs (7.3%), and conservation (6.8%). Relative to historical farm bill spending, Figure 10 shows mandatory outlays for the four largest titles—Nutrition, Crop Insurance, Farm Commodity Programs, and Conservation—that account for 99% of projected spending in the 2018 farm bill. Farm commodity programs outlays generally rise and fall inversely with commodity markets. Conservation program outlays have grown steadily but have leveled off in recent years. Discretionary Authorizations
In addition to providing mandatory spending, various sections of the farm bill authorize appropriations that may be provided in future discretionary appropriations acts.
The farm bill is an omnibus, multiyear law that governs an array of agricultural and food programs. The farm bill has typically undergone reauthorization about every five years. The current farm bill—the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-334), often called the "2018 farm bill"—was enacted in December 2018 and expires in 2023.
The farm bill provides an opportunity for Congress to choose how much support, if any, to provide for various agriculture and nutrition programs and how to allocate it among competing constituencies. Under congressional budgeting rules, many programs are assumed to continue beyond the end of a farm bill. From a budgetary perspective, this provides a baseline for comparing future spending reauthorizations, reallocations to other programs, and reductions to projected spending. Since 2000, congressional goals for the farm bill's budget have varied: The 2002 farm bill increased spending over 10 years, the 2008 farm bill was essentially budget neutral, the 2014 farm bill reduced spending, and the 2018 farm bill is budget neutral, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The farm bill authorizes programs in two spending categories: mandatory spending and discretionary spending. Mandatory spending is not only authorized but also actually provided via budget enforcement rules. Discretionary spending may be authorized in a farm bill but is not actually provided until budget decisions are made in a future annual appropriations act.
The CBO baseline is a projection at a particular point in time of future federal spending on mandatory programs under current law. When a new bill is proposed that would affect mandatory spending, the cost impact (score) is measured in relation to the baseline. Changes that increase spending relative to the baseline have a positive score; those that decrease spending relative to the baseline have a negative score. Federal budget rules such as "PayGo" may require budgetary offsets to balance new spending so that there is no increase in the federal deficit.
The April 2018 CBO baseline was the official benchmark to measure changes made by the 2018 farm bill. The five-year baseline was $426 billion over FY2019-FY2023 (what the 2014 farm bill would have spent had it been continued). The budgetary impact of the 2018 farm bill is measured relative to that baseline. Among its impacts are these four points:
1. The enacted farm bill increases net outlays in the first five years by $1.8 billion, which is offset by the same amount of net reductions in outlays during the second five years. Therefore, over 10 years, the net impact is budget neutral. 2. Eight titles in the enacted law have increased outlays over the five-year period, including Farm Commodities, Conservation, Trade, Nutrition, Research, Energy, Horticulture, and Miscellaneous. Two of those titles—Conservation and Nutrition—have reductions in the second five years of the budget window that make them budget neutral over 10 years. 3. Most of the budget reductions at the title level that provide offsets for the increases above, especially in the 10-year budget window, are from changes in the rural development title. 4. The 2018 farm bill provides continuing funding and, in some cases, permanent baseline, for 23 of the 39 so-called programs without baseline from the 2014 farm bill.
Projected outlays for the 2018 farm bill at enactment are $428 billion over the FY2019-FY2023 five-year life of the act. The Nutrition title and its largest program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), account for $326 billion (76%) of those projected outlays. The remaining 24%, $102 billion, is for agricultural programs, mostly in crop insurance (8.9%), farm commodity programs (7.3%), and conservation (6.8%). Other titles of the farm bill account for 1% of the mandatory spending, some of which are funded primarily with discretionary spending.
Historical trends in farm bill spending show increased SNAP outlays after the 2009 recession, increased crop insurance outlays based on insurable coverage, farm commodity programs outlays that vary inversely with markets, and steadily increasing conservation program outlays that have leveled off in recent years.