The Biden-Harris Administration released the President's Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25). The proposal for FY25 (October 1, 2024 – September 30, 2025) outlines the Administration's spending priorities for the coming fiscal year and requests $29.2 billion in discretionary budget authority for USDA in FY25, roughly $900 million less than the Administration's FY24 request.
"This year's total USDA Budget Request comes in nearly $1 billion lower than last year's request, and while the budget would provide important and necessary increases for key sustainable agriculture programs, other vital programs would be left shortchanged," said Mike Lavender, NSAC Policy Director. "The Budget would increase funding for Conservation Technical Assistance (+8.5%) and the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (+77%) compared to the FY2023 enacted level while maintaining funding for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program at $50 million."
"The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) applauds the Administration for these much-needed increases, particularly for the Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (OUAIP). Since OUAIP received its first appropriation in 2020, it has invested over $73 million through 182 grants and 119 cooperative agreements across 43 states and Puerto Rico. Yet, due to limited funding, OUAIP has only been able to fulfill 22% of requests since 2020. In FY25, it's essential that Congressional appropriators meet the growing nationwide demand for this popular program."
"Unfortunately, despite some advances, the proposal is not perfect. The FY25 USDA Budget request calls for just $50 million for SARE, backtracking from the FY24 request, which called for $60 million. NSAC is also disappointed to see a relatively significant cut in funding for the Organic Transition Research Program (-53%), alongside USDA's persistent call to reduce the beginning farmer and rancher set-aside by revising beginning farmer lending targets," Lavender added.
For more information:
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
sustainableagriculture.net