USDANEWS VOLUME 58 NO. 8 — October-November
1999
USDA’s Budget For FY 2000 Is Signed Into Law
by Ron Hall, Office of Communications
It was preceded by a governmentwide short-term funding bill or
“continuing resolution,” but USDA’s appropriation for FY 2000
was ultimately signed into law on October 22, 22 days into the new fiscal year.
What follows are some highlights thought to be of particular interest to USDA
employees.
Steve Dewhurst, director of the Office of Budget & Program
Analysis, said that USDA’s FY 2000 budget provides $59.2 billion in budget
authority for the Department. The figure excludes an appropriation for the
Forest Service which, for budget purposes, is part of the “Interior and
Related Agencies Appropriations,” but at press time that had not been
signed.
That $59.2 billion funding figure, the end product of congressional
conference committee efforts and negotiations with executive branch budget
officials, compared to $59.6 billion in budget authority originally passed by
the House of Representatives, $59.6 billion in budget authority originally
passed by the Senate, and $60.6 billion in budget authority requested by the
Clinton Administration as part of its FY 2000 governmentwide budget proposal.
The original budget proposal for USDA called for a federal staffing
level for FY 2000 of 97,605 full-time equivalent positions, or staff years.
That would have represented an increase of 412 federal staff years from the
FY99 staff year level which was estimated on February 1 to be at 97,193.
As detailed in a story in the
February
1999 issue of the USDA News, 8 USDA agencies or staff offices
reflected proposed increases in federal staff years and 5 reflected proposed
decreases from FY99 federal staff year levels.
However, based on the funding figure passed into law, Dewhurst projected
that the staff years for nearly all USDA agencies would basically remain at
FY99 levels.
Of Particular Interest
OBPA Associate Director Larry Wachs noted that USDA’s final
budget for FY 2000 includes these items thought to be of particular interest to
employees:
- It provides an $8.8 billion emergency aid package for agricultural
producers for recent weather-related crop losses and market losses. That figure
also includes funding to support the Farm Service Agency’s county staff as
they implement provisions of this emergency aid package. For budget purposes,
this $8.8 billion figure is separate from USDA’s FY 2000 budget figure of
$59.2 billion.
- It includes increases of $1.6 million and 17 staff years for the
Office of Civil Rights, and $0.9 million and 11 staff years for the Office of
Outreach, to continue to implement recommendations from USDA’s Civil
Rights Action Team Report and USDA’s National Commission on Small Farms
Report, and to carry out other responsibilities of those offices.
- It includes $0.5 million to the Office of the Chief Information
Officer for information security.
- It continues a prohibition against USDA agencies using FY 2000
budget funds to acquire new information technology systems or significant
upgrades, as determined by OCIO, without the approval of the Chief Information
Officer and the concurrence of USDA’s Executive Information Technology
Investment Review Board.
- It provides FSA’s non-federal employees--who are at county-
level offices--with federal civil service status, for the purpose of applying
for USDA civil service vacancies, in FY 2000 and thereafter.
- It provides no direct appropriation and prevents the use of
available funds to implement the Support Services Bureau, which was created as
part of USDA’s recently completed “administrative convergence”
initiative. As part of that initiative, three administrative structures that
once provided support in the areas of human resources, financial management,
information technology, civil rights, and management services for the Farm and
Foreign Agricultural Services mission area, the Rural Development mission area,
and the Natural Resources Conservation Service were combined into one new
structure, the Support Services Bureau, effective October 1, 1999.
- It provides $8 million to fill inspector vacancies, and $3 million
to hire new inspectors, in the Food Safety and Inspection Service. No new funds
are provided to hire Consumer Safety Officers in FSIS. However, FSIS plans to
continue with the upgrading and reclassification of part of its inspection
workforce to Consumer Safety Officers on a smaller scale, within available
funds.
- It continues funding at FY99 levels of $12.2 million for studies and
evaluations, by the Economic Research Service, of USDA food assistance
programs.
- It provides $7 million for a new three-year Food and Nutrition
Service pilot project, the School Breakfast Demonstration Project, designed to
evaluate providing breakfasts to all children regardless of family income.
- No funding is provided for USDA’s Alternative Agricultural
Research and Commercialization Corporation (AARCC).
Inside the
"USDA NEWS"