(32) Conrad amendment that substitutes the budget resolution reported by the House Budget Committee. VII. COMMITTEE VIEWS AND ESTIMATES Section 301(c) of the Congressional Budget Act requires the committees of the Senate to report to the Budget Committees the views and estimates of budget requirements for matters within their jurisdictions to assist the Budget Committees in preparing the budget resolution. Following are the views and estimates received from the various committees: This letter provides the views of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and ry regarding the FY 2004 Budget Resolution. These views are provided in response to Hebruary 7, 2003, letter and are in accordance with requirements of the Congressional et Act. The Agriculture Committee has jurisdiction over a number of mandatory spending rams including farm income support, agricultural trade, conservation, crop insurance, and ition programs. The crop insurance program was strengthened with major legislation in 0. Farm income support, agricultural trade and food aid, conservation, nutrition and other grams were begun or reauthorized with major improvements last year as part of the Farm urity and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (FSRIA). The Agriculture Department currently projects that U.S. net cash farm income is likely to cover modestly in 2003 from last year's level. Members of the Committee are encouraged by is forecast but know that the much needed farm income recovery is far from certain or omplete. USDA's forecast assumes that farmers' 2003 crops will be aided by a return to more avorable weather compared to the drought and other adverse weather conditions that prevailed n many areas in 2001 and 2002. The forecast also assumes that the FSRIA will be implemented without change. Farmers are counting on crop insurance and the farm bill's counter cyclicalbased support program to help them successfully manage the weather and price risks that have always characterized agricultural markets. The Agriculture Department is working to implement the farm bill. The Committee continues to support the implementation of the farm bill as enacted, and believes that rewriting it at this point would impair its functioning and slow the implementation process, thus causing confusion and uncertainty for farmers and ranchers, their suppliers and rural communities. Web site http://www.senate gov-agriculture The Honorable Don Nickles Page two The FSRIA's farm support program is costing taxpayers considerably less than it was projected to cost last summer shortly after the farm bill was enacted into law. Last month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its January 2003 current law baseline, the first baseline update since August 2002. CBO now projects that the FSRIA's farm support program (Commodity Credit Corporation, Function 350) will cost $6.2 billion less in fiscal year 2003 and $2.8 billion less in fiscal year 2004 than it projected last August. Last year's drought and other weather-related problems, which reduced 2002 crop yields and increased market prices for most crops, were major factors contributing to lower farm program expenditures. The Committee will monitor the FSRIA's farm support, agricultural trade, and conservation programs to ensure the law delivers the maximum benefit per taxpayer dollar expended. In order to provide weather-related disaster assistance for farmers and ranchers included in the FY 2003 omnibus appropriations bill, a funding limitation was placed on the FSRIA's Conservation Security Program. In addition, while the omnibus bill fixed a continuing problem with the provision of technical assistance for most conservation programs, the problem remains for conservation programs without specified dollar limitations. Additional resources above this committee's current baseline would allow these two situations to be corrected. This year the Committee will reauthorize the child nutrition programs. These programs provide school meals, provide after-school nutrition that keeps children off the streets and in a learning environment, provide meals in poor areas during the summer when school is out of session, provide cost effective food and nutritional support to pregnant women and their infants and children, and enhance welfare reform by providing food to day care homes and centers. Additional resources above this committee's current baseline would allow these programs to be improved and to better achieve their objectives. As your Committee considers the aggregate discretionary spending levels in the FY2004 budget resolution, we ask you to keep in mind the several important items that are funded in the agriculture appropriations bill. These include rural economic development, funding for agricultural research and biomass and renewable energy research and development and protecting the safety of our Nation's food supply. The Committee supports USDA efforts related to bioterrorism and is acutely aware of the need for expedited animal disease research (including |