Last week, President Biden signed a $1.5 trillion spending bill that will fund the U.S. government through the remainder of fiscal year 2022, which ends Sept. 30. The 2022 fiscal year started on Oct. 1, 2021, but lawmakers averted a government shutdown by passing a stopgap measure on the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government and proceeded to do this another two times. The spending package provides domestic agencies with a 6.7% budget increase.
In addition to mandatory spending on nutrition and other programs, the bill provides the USDA with $25.125 billion in discretionary funding, an increase of $1.426 billion above fiscal year 2021. The bill also includes $3.5 billion for agricultural research. Of the key provisions, NAAA was again successful in urging the House Appropriations Committee to insert language into the Agricultural Appropriations Spending Bill Committee Report indicating Congress’s continued support of the USDA-ARS Aerial Application Technology Program. NAAA has secured nearly $12 million for the USDA’s AATRU since 2002. Favorable committee report language sends a strong message to the USDA to continue to sustain appropriate funding for aerial application research. The language in the Committee Report reads:
Aerial Application.—The Committee recognizes the importance of aerial application to control crop pests and diseases and to fertilize and seed crops and forests. Aerial application is useful not only to ensure overall food safety and food security, but also to promote public health through improved mosquito control and public health application techniques. The ARS Aerial Application Technology Program conducts innovative research making aerial applications more efficient, effective, and precise. This program has yielded more effective public health control programs, as well as increased efficiencies and greater crop production. Research for aerial application serves the public interest as a vital tool for the future.
The bill includes $1.005 billion for the USDA conservation, including $78.3 million across the USDA to address the impacts of climate change. These are funds that may be directed to farmers that seed cover crops to their land. NAAA has sent data to the USDA showing that ag aviation protects 27.4 million acres of land from being converted into farmland every year. In addition, NAAA has shown that crops seeded by air sequester 1.9 million metric tons of CO2 annually (412,000 carbon combustion cars’ engines) from the roads each year. Increasing cover crop acreage by 15% is the equivalent of sequestering another 11.9 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent annually.
The bill also includes $550 million for the expansion of rural broadband, which may result in additional communication towers being erected in areas in which low altitude aerial applications are made.
The House Appropriations Committee summary of the FY 2022 Agriculture and Rural Development funding bill can be found here.
The omnibus spending package includes $102.9 billion in budgetary resources for the Department of Transportation (DOT). This is an increase of $16.2 billion above the fiscal year 2021 enacted level and $15.9 billion above the president’s 2022 budget request. Of this appropriated money, $18.1 billion is for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), $495 million above fiscal year 2021, including $15 billion for Aviation Safety and $554 million for discretionary Airport Improvement Grants and projects. The House Appropriations Committee summary of the FY 2022 Transportation funding bill can be found here.
For the EPA, the package includes $9.56 billion, $323 million above the 2021 enacted level. Of this amount, the bill contains a total of $129.376 for the Office of Pesticide Programs, which is above last year’s funding and above the $128.3 million required by the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA).
The bill also includes $100 million for Environmental Justice activities, an $83 million increase above the 2021 enacted level.
Report language accompanying the bill directs the EPA to continue stakeholder engagement related to Endangered Species Act consultations for pesticide registrations. The language reads:
Pesticide licensing and Stakeholder Engagement.—The Committees urge EPA to consult with public health, environmental, and other non-governmental organizations, industry stakeholders, and other interested parties in advance of the deadline for progress reports required by Sec. l O 115 of Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-334) and to provide updates to stakeholders as appropriate. The Committees also request that EPA continue to keep the Committees apprised of stakeholder engagement activities, consistent with the timing of progress reports to Congress on Endangered Species Act consultation.
In addition, the bill includes $14.1 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Interior, $776 million above the 2021 enacted level. This funding level includes $1.65 billion for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The House Appropriations Committee summary of the FY 2022 Interior and Environment funding bill can be found here.
