Department of Agriculture FY 2011 Budget

DOA FY 2011 BUDGET

The President’s Budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture provides $26 billion in discretionary budget authority.

Developing rural recreation and employment opportunities, including fishing and hunting for local residents and tourists by proposing more than $700 million to restore and manage public lands.

$8.1 billion for discretionary nutrition program supports, which is a $400 million increase over the 2010 enacted level. Funding supports 10 million participants in the WIC program, which is critical to the health of pregnant women, new mothers, and their infants.

The Budget provides $10 billion over 10 years for program reforms aimed at improving program access, establishing high standards for the nutritional quality of food available in school, exploring new strategies for reducing hunger and improving children’s food choices, and strengthening program management.

Expanding access to broadband services by offering $418 million in loans and grants to
transition rural communities into the modern information economy.

The Budget provides $429 million, the largest funding level ever, for competitive peer-reviewed research grants through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. This increase is designed to foster a more robust research program within USDA with special emphasis related to the following five core areas: climate change, bioenergy, childhood obesity, world hunger, and food safety.

The Budget will accelerate the protection of our natural resources by strategically targeting funding to high priority program areas. This includes funding the Wetlands Reserve Program at a level to enable the restoration and protection of almost 200,000 additional acres of wetlands, providing over $1.2 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to help farmers comply with regulatory requirements and protect natural resources, providing a 67 percent increase in funding over the 2010 enacted level to reduce nutrient loading in the Chesapeake Bay, and enrolling 12 million acres into the Conservation Stewardship Program to improve water quality and enhance energy efficiency. The Budget also provides funding to support the installation of high-impact targeted conservation practices on 1.5 million acres in priority landscapes, including the Bay-Delta region in California and the Upper Mississippi.