Department of Agriculture officials this week will answer to a House Appropriations subpanel over a conservation budget proposal that would cap a major program's enrollment and permanently reduce the acreage in another.

The hearing is one of a series being held on the Obama administration's $154.5 billion budget request for USDA. The proposal would provide almost $23 billion in discretionary funding, a 3 percent decrease from the levels enacted in 2012.

The House Appropriations Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies Subcommittee will on Wednesday hear from Harris Sherman, USDA undersecretary for natural resources and the environment, and Dave White, chief of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service. They will be joined by USDA's budget officer, Michael Young.

As the subcommittee conducts its hearing, USDA's budget will face further scrutiny from the House Agriculture Committee. Also Wednesday, the committee plans to finalize a letter to the House Budget Committee highlighting its spending recommendations.

Last month, the Obama administration proposed a fiscal 2013 discretionary budget of $827 million for farmland conservation, the same as the level enacted in fiscal 2012.

The proposed budget, however, would cap the Conservation Reserve Program at 30 million acres, down from 32 million acres. The proposal follows calls to reduce acres in the program as high crop prices have spurred farmers to plant rather than collect rents for conservation.

With about 30 million acres currently enrolled in the program, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said the budget proposal was "basically responding to what the market is telling us" (E&ENews PM, Feb. 13).

Congress will ultimately decide whether to cut the program in the reauthorization of the five-year farm bill. The current bill expires later this year.

On Wednesday, the appropriation subpanel's chairman, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), is likely to be critical of the Conservation Reserve Program.

Kingston told USDA officials last week "it would appear to me that a lot of the land in it isn't highly erodible."

USDA's Office of the Inspector General is currently investigating the program, department officials said last week. They are examining differences in rental rates among states.

President Obama has also proposed permanently reducing the Conservation Stewardship Program, which provides incentives to farmers for implementing conservation plans, by almost 760,000 acres.

The administration would also slightly reduce the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, a working-lands initiative that provides cost-share funding for farmers to make environmental improvements, such as constructing fences and gutters, on their lands and buildings. Obama has requested $1.403 billion for the program, compared to the $1.408 billion it requested in fiscal 2012.

Schedule: The House Appropriations hearing is Wednesday, March 7, at 10 a.m. in 2362-A Rayburn.

Witnesses: Harris Sherman, USDA undersecretary for natural resources and the environment; Dave White, chief of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service; and Michael Young, USDA's budget officer.

Schedule: The House Agriculture Committee business meeting is 10 a.m. Wednesday in 1300 Longworth.