“The theme of this budget is: not leaving rural America behind in the 21^st century.”

Secretary Dan Glickman made that point as he spoke at a press conference, held on February 7, to present USDA’s proposed budget for FY 2001. He and Deputy Secretary Richard Rominger highlighted items of importance in the Department’s proposed budget.

Glickman said that the budget includes initiatives to “keep rural America alive” so that residents--even those who are not involved in production agriculture--will still want to stay in rural America.

“Our goal is to help agriculture compete in the 21^st century,” he added.

Glickman also noted that USDA’s FY 2001 budget proposes farm safety net improvements designed to enhance farm income support, increase environmental benefits, reform the crop insurance program, and expand economic opportunities for farms and rural areas.

In addition, the budget proposes enhanced conservation programs to include a boost in the President’s Lands Legacy Initiative, as well as increased investments in nutrition programs, food safety, and water quality.

USDA’s overall budget proposal for FY 2001 calls for a program level of $100.2 billion and federal cash outlays of over $64.9 billion. This represents a 4.9 percent decrease--by $5.2 billion- -from the currently estimated FY 2000 program level of $105.4 billion, as well as an 8.6 percent decrease--by over $6.1 billion--from the currently estimated FY 2000 cash outlay level of nearly $71.1 billion.

Budget officials generally regard “program level” figures as the best method for describing the total scope of federal activities, including all services, loans, and grants in a budget. This is because “federal cash outlay” figures--while generally publicized more frequently--often don’t clearly reflect the total magnitude of federal activities, since some loan program outlay figures are either excluded or presented in net present value terms.

USDA’s budget proposes a federal staffing level for FY 2001 of 100,501 full-time equivalent positions, or federal staff years. This represents an increase of 2,346 federal staff years from the currently estimated FY 2000 federal staff year level of 98,155.

Agencies which reflect proposed increases in federal staff years include the Natural Resources Conservation Service (an increase of 1,843 federal staff years, to total 13,444 federal staff years), the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (247, to total 6,888), the Food and Nutrition Service (144, to total 1,861), the Rural Development mission area (114, to total 7,020), the Grain Inspection, Packers & Stockyards Administration (49, to total 814), the Foreign Agricultural Service (20, to total 973), the Office of the General Counsel (20, to total 370), Departmental Administration (20, to total 753), the Office of the Chief Information Officer (12, to total 287), the Cooperative State Research, Education, & Extension Service (11, to total 451), the Economic Research Service (11, to total 522), the Forest Service (8, to total 35,619), the Office of Inspector General (7, to total 760), and the Office of the Chief Economist (6, to total 66).

Agencies with proposed decreases in federal staff years include the Food Safety and Inspection Service (a decrease of 162 federal staff years, to total 9,752 federal staff years), the National Agricultural Statistics Service (2, to total 1,135), and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (2, to total 1,173).

The permanent full-time non-federal county employees of the Farm Service Agency are projected to remain at 9,496 non-federal staff years, but FSA’s temporary non-federal county employees are projected to decrease by 622, to total 1,270 non-federal staff years.

These federal staff year estimates are all subject to adjustments to reflect the final outcome of budget negotiations, including such unpredictable factors as the need for supplemental appropriations to cover natural disasters and other emergencies.

Highlights of USDA’s FY 2001 budget proposal, thought to be of particular interest to employees, include:

• Continuing the Department’s field office modernization plan for its county-based agencies (FSA, NRCS, and RD). All USDA Service Center agency offices across the country are to have a 'common computing environment,’ allowing efficient e-mail, records transfer, and streamlined business processes for better customer service; $75 million is requested for its continued implementation.
• Providing an increase of $1 million and 10 staff years for the Department’s alternative dispute resolution programs to help resolve equal employment opportunity complaints at an early stage.
• Increasing programs of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization by $500,000 to support educational and technical assistance for small and disadvantaged and small, women-owned businesses in rural areas. The intent is to increase returns through value-added processing of crops, developing new agriculturally oriented markets, and e-commerce.
• Providing nearly $1.3 billion in direct and guaranteed business and industry loans from the Rural Business-Cooperative Service to help create or save 40,000 more jobs in rural communities.
• Proposing an increase in funding by nearly one-third, to total $561 million, for USDA programs in the governmentwide Invasive Species Initiative, including funds for a new national early warning system to help prevent, detect, and rapidly eradicate recently introduced invasive plant, insect, and animal species such as the Asian longhorned beetle, the zebra mussel, and leafy spurge.
• Providing an increase of $29 million, to total over $165 million, for USDA programs to support the President’s Food Safety Initiative.

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