Funding for USDA programs in the FY2018 omnibus appropriations bill
Late last week, Congress passed an omnibus funding package to cover the remainder of the current federal fiscal year (FY2018). The package maintains current funding levels for formula funds for land-grant universities in the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) budget, including Hatch Act experiment station funds and McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry funds.
The omnibus bill includes a slight increase of $25 million for competitive grants through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative program, as well as $5 million for a pilot program to provide NIFA grants to nonprofit organizations that enhance farming opportunities for military veterans. It also sets an indirect cost recovery rate of 30% for NIFA competitive grants and maintains the prohibition on indirect cost recovery for extension implementation program area grants.
The UW–Madison Office of Federal Relations recent shared a broader summary of the FY2018 funding bill. Read it here. FY2018 runs through Sept. 30, 2018.
Omnibus Appropriations Summary of Land-Grant University NIFA Priorities ($Millions)
| Priority | FY 17 Enacted | FY 18 Final | Difference |
| Smith-Lever 3(b)-(c) | 300.000 | 300.000 | 0.000 |
| Hatch-Act | 243.701 | 243.701 | 0.000 |
| Evans-Allen (1890s Research) | 54.185 | 54.185 | 0.000 |
| 1890 Institutions Extension | 45.620 | 45.620 | 0.000 |
| McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry | 33.961 | 33.961 | 0.000 |
| Agriculture and Food Research Initiative | 375.000 | 400.000 | 25.000 |
| Total | 1,058.714 | 1,077.467 |