A food-and-farm department's money — mandatory and discretionary, never conflated.
Office of Budget and Program Analysis · USDA
Most of USDA is mandatory: the nutrition-assistance entitlements (SNAP and the Child Nutrition Programs), the Federal crop-insurance program, and the farm-commodity programs. The appropriated, discretionary budget Congress sets each year — WIC, the Forest Service, research, rural development, food safety — is the much smaller slice. This monitor keeps the two strictly apart. FY2025 actuals, FY2026, and the FY2027 request; the mandatory and discretionary bands re-add to the published USDA totals.
Mandatory · FY2027
Set by law, not annual appropriations — the bulk of USDA
Discretionary · FY2027
The appropriated budget Congress sets each year
Figures are from the USDA FY2027 Budget Summary (Figures OV-1 New Budget Authority and OV-2 Outlays, plus the FNS, RMA, and Forest Service agency tables). The mandatory and discretionary frames are never summed into a single “USDA budget” number — the mandatory entitlements dwarf the appropriated base.
FY2027 outlays — mandatory vs discretionary
USDA FY2027 Budget Summary, Figure OV-2 · total $0BLargest discretionary programs (FY2027 budget authority)