USDANEWS VOLUME 56 NO.10 - NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 1997

USDA's Budget For FY 1998 Is Signed Into Law

   Plus, The New Line-Item Veto

by Ron Hall, Office of Communications

One year ago, USDA had the distinction of being the first federal department with an approved budget for FY 1997. The Department didn't garner that distinction this year--in fact, it was the 10th, of the 13 appropriations requiring passage, to be signed into law.

Nonetheless, it's now a "done deal," and what follows are some highlights thought to be of particular interest to employees.

Steve Dewhurst, director of the Office of Budget & Program Analysis, said that USDA's FY98 budget, which was signed on Nov. 18, provides over $50.7 billion in budget authority for the Department. This figure includes $2.5 billion for the Forest Service which, for budget purposes, is part of the "Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act" that was signed Nov. 14.

That $50.7 billion funding figure, the end product of congressional conference committee efforts, compared to $50.7 billion in budget authority originally passed by the House of Representatives, $51.7 billion in budget authority originally passed by the Senate, and over $53.2 billion in budget authority--with nearly $58.8 billion in federal cash outlays--requested by the Clinton Administration as part of its FY98 governmentwide budget proposal that it sent to Congress on Feb. 6.

The original budget proposal for USDA called for a federal staffing level for FY98 of 99,866 full-time equivalent positions, or staff years. That would have represented a decrease of 1,790 staff years from the estimated FY97 staff year level of 101,656.

As detailed in a story in the Feb. 1997 issue of the USDA News, 6 USDA agencies or offices reflected proposed increases in staff years, 18 reflected proposed decreases, and 4 reflected no proposed changes from FY97 staff year levels.

However, because of the reduced funding for FY98, Dewhurst projected that the staff years for nearly all USDA agencies would be less than those originally proposed in the FY98 budget.

Of particular interest
OBPA Associate Director Larry Wachs noted that USDA's final budget for FY98 includes information on these items thought to be of particular interest to employees:

• It provides an additional $3.5 million--to total nearly $15.3 million--for civil rights enforcement activities, to include the establishment of an investigative unit within the Office of Civil Rights. The new investigative unit is to focus on investigations of program complaints;
• Concerning the collocation of USDA's field service centers, it advised that it expects the Department to implement "office streamlining in a manner that reflects differences among the States and that uses criteria including workload, complexity, and accessibility rather than an arbitrary process based solely on distances between county offices";
• It funds the 1997 Census of Agriculture to be conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. The authority for this Census to be carried out by NASS was recently given in the Census of Agriculture Act of 1997, signed Nov. 21. The March 1997 issue of the USDA News carried a story about the transfer of that responsibility from the U.S. Bureau of the Census to NASS;
• It provides nearly $18.5 million to the Economic Research Service for studies and evaluations of Food Stamp, WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children), and Child Nutrition Programs. Those studies were previously managed by the Food and Consumer Service;
• It continues to limit all USDA funds spent on advisory committees, task forces, panels, and commissions--except panels for negotiated rulemaking efforts and panels for the review of competitively awarded grants--to not more than $1 million.

Line-item veto action
Wachs pointed out that this year, for the first time, federal budgets which were passed by Congress and then signed into law were also subject to line-item veto action by the president for a period of five days following the date the appropriations bill became law. Congress would then need to introduce and pass "disapproval legislation" to restore the line-items upon which the president would act. If he vetoed that bill, then it would take a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress to override that veto.

Wachs said that line-item veto action subsequently removed six items, totaling $2.94 million, that impact USDA appropriations for FY98. They included two items totaling $1.50 million for Agricultural Research Service facilities in Mississippi and Utah; three items totaling $.44 million for Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service operations in Alaska and Ohio; and one item totaling $1.0 million for Forest Service operations in Mississippi. ¤

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