The "fiscal cliff" package, passed by Congress on New Year's Day and signed by the President on January 2^nd, includes a partial extension of the 2008 Farm Bill until September 30, 2013. The legislation includes provisions to avoid substantial increases in the price of milk and continues direct payments for commodity crops, but failed to fully extend the conservation title, according to the Wildlife Management Institute.

A fix for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) was not included in the fiscal cliff package. Enrollment in CSP had to be curtailed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last October because of a mistake in the Continuing Resolution passed by Congress to allow programs to continue to operate.

The good news is that 37 programs, including most of the conservation programs in the 2008 Farm Bill, were extended in the fiscal cliff agreement. The bad news is that they don't have a budget baseline, and are not currently funded. Funding for them must come from the Appropriations Committee which would have to divert dollars that are already budgeted for other programs. On a more positive note, the extension allows USDA to restart programs that have ongoing baseline funding but have lacked authority to spend the money since expiration of the 2008 bill. Both the Wetland Reserve Program and the Grassland Reserve Program are in this category with a modest amount of funding remaining from the 2008 legislation.

There is much frustration among many members of Congress, agricultural groups and the conservation community that the proposed 2012 Farm Bill was unable to clear Congress before the end of the year. That legislation garnered strong, bi-partisan support by both the U.S. Senate and the House Agriculture Committee along with most agricultural and conservation organizations while saving somewhere between $24 and $33 billion in federal spending.

Congress must now start over writing a new Farm Bill with a number of new members on the Agriculture Committees. In addition, and likely more problematic, funding for the bill will almost certainly be even more difficult to come by this year than it was during the previous session of Congress. The fiscal cliff package delays automatic budget cuts for two months which is very close to the same time that the Treasury Department will run out of options to avoid defaulting on the national debt. This sets up another showdown with Congress and the Administration that could greatly impact available funding for the next Farm Bill. (pmr)