Winners and losers of Bush’s budget package

Note: Spending figures are based on each department’s discretionary budget authority.

AGRICULTURE

Spending: $19.4 billion, down 9.6 percent

President Bush’s budget would shed $587 million from farm price supports, mainly by cutting payments to farmers by 5 percent and reducing the annual ceiling on payments from $360,000 to $250,000. It would also close loopholes allowing big cotton and rice operations to get payments well above the limits, as well as reduce loan availability.

Food stamp spending would grow by $3.5 billion, or 10 percent, to $36 billion, to cover 2.7 million more recipients and food price inflation. Also, school lunch spending would grow $550 million to $12.9 billion, and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, would grow by $335 million, to $5.6 billion.

Crop insurance spending would drop by $140 million annually — but not for another year. Minimum coverage levels would rise and direct payments would require producers to buy crop insurance.

The administration would move $300 million from the department’s foreign food aid program to the U.S. Agency for International Development. This would allow USAID to buy food products overseas for foreign aid, rather than from U.S. farmers.

COMMERCE

Spending: $9.4 billion, up 49 percent

The major reason for the gigantic spending increase is the addition of a $3.7 billion economic development program for distressed communities. That program would consolidate 18 federal programs, including a community development block grants program now housed at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would get $3.6 billion, down from $3.9 billion from last year. As part of NOAA’s 2006 budget, $9.5 million is included to improve U.S. tsunami-warning capabilities.

The budget proposes to end the Public Telecommunications Facilities Planning and Construction program, which recently has been used to help public TV stations buy digital transmission equipment. Mr. Bush’s budget suggested that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting should use a portion of its budget for that purpose.

The budget also proposes to eliminate the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Advanced Technology Program, which aims to help the private sector accelerate the development of innovative technologies.

Story Continues →