It was just a spud for starters: a $200,000 spending earmark Congress added in 1982 for the breeding of Eastern Russets. A quarter century and $28 million later, special research grants for potatoes top $1.4 million annually with no end in sight -- until now.
As part of a giant spending bill to be filed in Congress tonight, Democrats will take a spade to more than $186 million in such research grants, which have quadrupled in the Agriculture Department since the 1980s. Hardest hit are the nation's 58 land-grant colleges, which have become dependent on the funds and now are caught in the backlash against members of Congress "earmarking" money for particular causes or recipients.
Filling about 150 pages, the bill will govern spending for the last eight months of fiscal 2007 -- ending Sept. 30 -- and coming just a week before President Bush submits his budget request for fiscal 2008, its proposed cuts underscore the changed landscape after November's elections. The new Democratic majority has declared a moratorium on earmarks, while Congress establishes rules to deal with past abuses in the appropriations process. But only now will Washington get a glimpse of the full impact on spending and the balance of power between Congress and the White House.
Many agriculture grants, like the ones for potato research, had become almost fixtures of the government. Although the topics of agricultural-research grants, such as the Mormon cricket and wheat sawfly, aren't household names, the funds can be vital in paying graduate students and protecting agriculture against pests and blight.
"Funding to land-grant colleges in agriculture is like investing in a fire department," said Thomas Payne, dean of agriculture at the University of Missouri, which could lose about $17 million in annual research funds. "Research is a long-term investment. It isn't a light switch to turn on and off."
Most of the earmarked funds will be redistributed back to the colleges through federal aid programs. But many, like Missouri, will receive less than they do now through earmarks. "It's going to be devastating to the University of Florida and the land-grant college system," said Jimmy Creek, a university senior vice president for agriculture.
Restoring earmarks in future budgets will be that much harder once whole accounts have been wiped out.
Beyond agriculture, dedicated pots of money for small business and community development grants also are expected to be eliminated in the coming budget bill.
Necessity dictates some of the earmark cuts, since the underlying budget bill will permit an increase roughly equal to inflation; therefore, any real growth in one area requires cuts in another. For example, a portion of the agriculture research funds could end up being diverted to food safety inspections after recent E. coli incidents.
But eliminating earmarks doesn't always produce savings. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency will continue to distribute the roughly $197 million earmarked in fiscal 2006 for state water projects. However, that distribution now will be dictated by the agency or federal funding formulas -- not by lawmakers.
That is the biggest rub, since Democrats know they are giving more spending discretion to a Republican, President Bush. In a single stroke, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D., W.Va.), a champion of legislative power, is eliminating more earmarks in dollar terms than all the line-item veto bills he has fought in his career -- a fact that astonishes his fellow Democrats.
But by shaking off the pork barrel, Congress can take a firmer stand for its priorities, such as education spending. And the administration will pay a price for having submitted a budget that critics say low-balls the need for new appropriations, by assuming fee increases that are politically difficult and have never materialized.
"The lesson is be careful what you ask for in a budget," said Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations panel. "You may get it, and that may be all you get."
Just as congressional earmarks are scotched for the remainder of fiscal 2007, Mr. Bush's own initiatives will be scaled back to meet the bill's $463.5 billion spending cap, chosen to conform to the president's initial fiscal 2007 budget. The same limits contributed to a breakdown of the budget process after November's elections, leaving most of the government dependent on a stopgap spending bill to carry it through Feb. 15.
Republicans planned to saddle Democrats with the chore of quickly coming forward with a blueprint for the final eight months of fiscal 2007. The result is unlike anything attempted before by Congress. "It's unique, certainly for modern times," said White House Budget Director Rob Portman.
This isn't a typical omnibus spending package or an extension of the stopgap bill, which has proved untenable for many agencies. Instead, Democrats opted for a hybrid, which begins by freezing government spending at 2006 levels and then cuts and adds to increase net spending by between $10 billion and $12 billion, before hitting the cap.
Veterans medical care alone could consume $4 billion; defense health programs for active-duty military personnel, another $1.4 billion. Just to get back to 2005 funding levels, Democrats want to add $2.3 billion for health and education accounts such as Pell Grants for low-income college students.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation needs more money to hire agents. Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt wrote Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) last week, seeking more funds for the National Science Foundation. Fighting AIDS overseas remains a priority. At home, Medicare turns out to have underbudgeted by $52 million the annual cost of a telephone hot line to help the elderly pick a prescription-drug plan.
This sets up a fight over the Democrats' reluctance to fund an extra $4.1 billion the military wants for base closings and moving about 12,000 troops back to the U.S. from Europe and Asia. Delays could complicate Army deployments for Iraq as well, but adding the full $4.1 billion would make it impossible to meet other domestic priorities.
"We're the cleanup brigade," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D., Wis.). And with cleaner hands on earmarks, Democrats hope to make their decisions stick.
DWINDLING CROP
• The News: A government-wide budget bill for the next eight months to be presented in Congress this week proposes to temporarily halt many earmarks, including ones for agriculture research.
• The Players: Most affected are land-grant colleges, which have become increasingly dependent on earmarks.
• What It Means: Although some of the funds will reach the colleges through other federal aid programs, the budget battle suspends a reliable stream of funding and tests efforts by the new Democratic majority to overhaul the appropriations process.
