During the week of December 18, 2005, both the House and Senate approved the conference agreement on the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (H.Rept. 109-362, S. 1932), which includes net reductions of $2.7 billion over five years for USDA mandatory programs. Included in the agreement is a $1.7 billion reduction in farm commodity support programs, a $934 million reduction in conservation spending, a $620 million reduction in a mandatory research program, and $419 million cut in rural development programs, as scored by CBO over a five-year period (FY2006-2010). The measure also includes a two-year extension of a dairy income support program, at an estimated cost of $998 million. No reductions to food stamp spending were included in the conference agreement.

This report monitors actions taken by the 109th Congress for the House’s Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies (SSJC) and the Senate’s Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) FY2006 appropriations legislation.