The House Appropriations Committee approved by voice vote, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies subcommittee bill that will fund the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for fiscal year 2016.
The $20.7 billion agriculture spending bill will fund USDA, FDA and other programs at roughly five percent below President Barack Obama’s request. The full committee’s bill provides $175 million, or about 1 percent, less than last year’s appropriation. In total, the bill provides $143.9 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding – $3.2 billion below the president’s request and $3.8 billion below the fiscal year 2015 enacted level. Discretionary funding alone in the bill is $20.65 billion, $175 million below the fiscal year 2015 enacted level.
Highlights of the bill are as follows:
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) – The bill provides $2.7 billion for agriculture research programs, including $45 million for upgrades to the Southeast Research Poultry Lab in Athens, Georgia. The same amount for the lab was approved in last year’s bill. ARS funding supports research to improve food safety and water quality and combat antimicrobial resistance. The committee also advanced a provision that would withhold five percent of ARS ($56 million) until the agency proves it is using best practices in regards to animal welfare. The bill would require Agriculture Secretary Vilsack to certify in writing that ARS has updated its animal care policies and that every facility that conducts animal research maintains an Animal Care and Use Committee.
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) – The legislation includes $871 million – $15 million above the president’s budget request and approximately the same as the fiscal year 2015 enacted level – for APHIS. This funding will support programs to help control or eradicate plant and animal pests and diseases and will help address the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak.
Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) – The legislation includes $1 billion for food safety and inspection programs – approximately the same as the 2015 enacted level. These mandatory inspection activities help ensure the safety and productivity of the country’s $186 billion meat and poultry industry and keep safe, healthy food on American tables. The funding provided will maintain more than 8,000 front-line inspection personnel for meat, poultry, and egg products at more than 6,400 facilities across the country.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – The FDA receives a total of almost $2.6 billion in discretionary funding in the bill, an increase of $30 million over the fiscal year 2015 enacted level. Total funding for FDA, including revenue from user fees, is $4.6 billion – $106 million above fiscal year 2015. The bill also includes a policy provision delaying the implementation of a new menu labeling regulation by a year, to give restaurants, local supermarkets, grocery stores, and similar retail establishments adequate time to comply with the law. The regulation will become effective December 1, 2016.
In the committee’s managers amendment is a provision that directs USDA to coordinate with the Institute of Medicine to conduct a study on the Dietary Guidelines process, including looking at transparency, how the committee selection process can be improved, and how exactly the science is used.
The panel also voted today to stop USDA from partially lifting a ban on fresh and chilled beef from some regions of Brazil and Argentina, a priority of rancher groups that say they are concerned that the countries have a long history of fighting outbreaks of foot and mouth disease. The disease is not a threat to humans and no case has been reported in U.S. livestock since 1929. But it is highly virulent to cattle, reducing the amount of meat or milk the animals produce.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association warned last year that a U.S. outbreak could cause $5 billion to $50 billion in losses to ranchers. The provision would not permanently stop the department from lifting the ban. It would require USDA to perform another comprehensive risk analysis on food-and-mouth disease in Brazil and Argentina; make visits to both countries; and submit a report to the full Appropriations Committee on its findings before ending the import prohibition.
The panel also passed an amendment that would protect USDA’s legislatively mandated plan to takeover catfish inspection from FDA. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said she authored the amendment out of concern that the Office of the United States Trade Representative might agree to deals with countries, like Vietnam, exempting them from having their catfish inspected by USDA. “You can’t enter any agreement that would bypass the inspection plan as it was laid out in the farm bill,” said DeLauro. FSIS is preparing to oversee activities at more than 300 seafood processing plants that accept imported catfish and catfish-like species, according to government sources. FSIS is also getting ready to send staff to Vietnam and other countries to guarantee good food safety practices are being employed on seafood destined for the United States.
The agriculture funding measure is the 11th out of the 12 yearly appropriations bills to be passed out of full committee. To date, no date has been set for consideration on the floor.
