WASHINGTON, May 18, 2016 - The Senate
is moving a fiscal 2017 spending bill that would boost funding for implementing
the Food Safety Modernization Act by more than the White House requested. The
measure, which was approved by the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee on
Tuesday, also would provide $1.5
million to USDA to open an office in Cuba, a priority of Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Funding for FSMA is a top issue for
state agriculture departments and other agencies that will be responsible for
much of the new inspections required by a series of new rules. The Senate bill would increase FSMA funding
for the budget year that starts Oct. 1 by $40.2 million, $15 million more than
President Obama requested. The House version contains an increase of $33
million.
Vilsack has argued that USDA needs to set up an office in Cuba to promote U.S products. The White House budget request
said “USDA needs an in-country presence in Cuba to cultivate key relationships,
gain firsthand knowledge of the country’s agricultural challenges and
opportunities, and develop programs of mutual benefit to both countries.”
The Senate bill lacks some
controversial provisions that are in the House version, including an amendment
that would bar USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration
(GIPSA) from issuing new marketing regulations for poultry and livestock
operations.
The chairman of the subcommittee,
Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said he hopes to include in a manager’s amendment a
provision that would roll back a
proposed USDA rule that would require convenience stores to offer a wider range
of healthful foods if they accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
benefits.
The full Appropriations Committee will
consider the bill and the manager’s amendment on Thursday. Moran said the
committee also may debate amendments on labeling of GMO salmon, a priority
issue for another committee member, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
The subcommittee’s bill includes a
provision that would bar the Food and Drug Administration from implementing new
menu labeling requirements before next May, when they are currently scheduled
to take effect.
Other highlights in the bill:
--It provides $150 million to USDA’s
Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations program, the first funding it has received since 2010. “This vital
infrastructure program protects lives and property, builds community resiliency
to extreme weather events and reduces the need for federal disaster
assistance,” according to the National Watershed Coalition.
---It funds incentives for military veterans to go into agriculture.
Vilsack’s office would get $5 million for outreach to veterans and $2.5 million
would go to the Food and Agriculture Resilience Program for Military Veterans
(FARM-Vets) under the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The bill also
would waive Farm Service Agency loan application fees for veterans.
--It provides $1.18 billion for USDA’s
Agricultural Research Service, a $34 million increase over FY 2016. The
Agriculture and Food Research Initiative would receive $375 million, a $25
million increase. The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program
would be increased by $2.3 million.
--
The bill text has not been released,
but the measure is expected to cap the Environmental Quality Incentives Program
(EQIP) at $1.35 billion, about $300 million below the level mandated by the
farm bill, according to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. The group “continues
to assert that farm bill funding decisions should be left intact and not undone
by appropriators, whose job is to allocate discretionary funding, not to
rewrite legislation and change farm bill mandatory funding decisions.”
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