House appropriators this week will mark up a fiscal 2013 appropriations bill authored by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.).

The Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Subcommittee is unlikely to release details about the bill until Wednesday, the day of the markup.

But during appropriations hearings held earlier this year, Kingston and several Republican members of the subcommittee were critical of federal funding and regulations, suggesting the bill will include cuts to farm programs, including conservation and energy programs.

"This escalation of uncontrolled spending is weighing heavily on the taxpayers of our country. We all must make some sacrifice," Kingston said at the first of the hearings (Greenwire, Feb. 17).

Kingston's bill is also unlikely to grant a requested 50 percent increase to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, an agency that falls in the agriculture bill but whose responsibilities encompass regulation of speculation in energy futures markets.

The CFTC has requested the increase from $205 million to $308 million to finish rulemaking under the 2010 financial reform package, which gave the agency the authority to limit excessive speculation in the oil futures markets and regulate the over-the-counter derivatives market for the first time in its history.

House Democrats pushed for the budget increase earlier this year as gas pump prices soared, but Republicans in the appropriations subpanel have questioned whether the agency's workload warranted a big spending increase.

"How a chairman can come before us and request 50 percent more in spending, for whatever reason -- it's really, really difficult to explain," Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) told CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler in March (E&E Daily, March 23).

In late April, Senate appropriators unanimously approved a $20.1 billion spending bill for agriculture programs and FDA. The package is about $1 billion higher than enacted fiscal 2012 levels (E&ENews PM, April 26).

Schedule: The markup is Wednesday, June 6, at 10 a.m. in 2361-A Rayburn.