GLICKMAN UNVEILS PROPOSED USDA BUDGET Release No. 0035.97 Tom Amontree (202) 720-4623 Laura Trivers (202) 720-4623 GLICKMAN UNVEILS PROPOSED USDA BUDGET FOR FY 1998 WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 1997--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today released the Administration's proposed FY98 budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- a budget that helps meet President Clinton's goal of a balanced budget by 2002 while living up to the President's commitment to protect our country's neediest citizens and environment. "At the same time we are balancing the budget, we can also meet our vital role to do what the private sector cannot do alone -- ensure a safe food supply, provide a nutritional foundation for our poorest citizens, provide a safety net for farmers, and protect our environment for our children and their children," Glickman said. "Our FY98 budget of nearly $59 billion allows us to meet those goals." "USDA's FY 98 budget also supports the President's commitment to children and education," Glickman said. "We have tripled the amount of money for grants in our Distance Learning and Telemedicine program so that even more students in rural schools will have access to the unlimited learning potential of the information superhighway. And, we have allocated research dollars to better understand the link between children's diet and cognitive development." USDA contributions to balancing the budget include cutting the county field structure in half by 2002, implementing an improved rural home loan servicing system, and relying on the contributions of the beneficiaries of certain programs to finance them. "USDA's reorganization and streamlining plan are helping us save money while still providing effective service to our customers," Glickman said. "USDA's workforce is the smallest in 30 years -- since John Kennedy was president. By the end of 1996, USDA was ahead of schedule and had reduced staff years more than 13,000 below the 1993 level." The FY98 budget provides full funding of $4.1 billion for WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children), and fulfills the President's pledge to moderate the harshest effects of welfare reform on families with children and single adults willing to work while imposing a tough "one strike and you are out" work requirement. The FY98 budget proposes statutory changes to improve the safety net for farmers. We want to expand the revenue insurance program nationwide; extend marketing assistance loans when market conditions make it necessary; and improve our credit system to help farmers at the lower end of the economic ladder. The budget increases funding for agricultural weather activities. The budget continues to provide export opportunities to enhance farm income for producers as the President committed when he signed the 1996 Farm Bill. It also emphasizes meeting the needs of beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers -- funding for outreach to these farmers will increase five fold. The budget also provides much needed estate tax relief for farmers wanting to leave their farms to their children. Highlights of the FY98 budget: The budget provides funding for USDA's modernization of its meat and poultry inspection system at $685 million, with industry shouldering a portion of the costs. The budget also contains funds for increased surveillance of food borne illnesses and an early warning system to strengthen the ability to identify outbreaks and protect consumers. The Administration proposes spending nearly $9.2 billion to provide economic opportunities in rural America, including bringing safe drinking water to rural communities, providing more than 63,000 home loans, ensuring that rural schools and hospitals have access to the Information Superhighway, and supporting our Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities. To continue Agriculture's record-breaking export achievements, the budget proposes nearly $7.7 billion to support USDA's international programs and activities in FY 1998. The budget reflects the Administration's goal to increase acreage enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program to 36.4 million acres. It provides $200 million for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which provides technical and financial assistance to help farmers and areas of States with major environmental problems. The budget funds an additional 212,000 acres of wetlands into the Wetlands Reserve Program. The budget also proposes continuing the implementation of the Integrated Pest Management Initiative, a cooperative effort to develop IPM strategies and implement IPM methods on 75 percent of crop acres by the year 2000. The budget maintains the Administration's strong support for research by providing an additional $36 million for the National Research Initiative competitive grants program. The FY 98 budget increases by $12 million USDA's human nutrition initiative supporting research to better understand the link between diet and cognitive development in children, the effect of prenatal and early childhood nutrition on physical and intellectual health later in life, and information on the nutritional needs of at-risk Americans, as well as the role of certain foods in preventing disease. Funding for the Northwest Forest Plan, a technical and economic assistance initiative for communities and individuals who have been dependent on Federal timber supplies, is $408 million, a 6 percent increase over the 1997 estimate. The budget also provides additional funds to enhance the Forest Service's firefighting efforts. # NOTE: USDA news releases and media advisories are available on the Internet. Access the USDA Home Page on the World Wide Web at http://www.usda.gov