House to Consider FY12 Ag/Commerce Bill on Food Safety, Etc. on Nov 17

(The federal government is currently funded through Friday, November 18, 2011. See ITT’s Online Archives 11092708 and 11092615 for summaries of the bill which funds the federal government through November 18, 2011.)

Highlights of the conference version of H.R. 2112³, the Conference Committee’s Joint Explanatory Statement⁴, and House Appropriations Committee’s summaries include:

Agriculture, Rural Development, Food & Drug Administration & Related Agencies

FY 2012 funding in the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies section of the conference version of H.R. 2112 represents a $350 million reduction from FY 2011 funding.

FDA. The Food and Drug Administration would receive $50 million above its FY 2011 level, including $39 million to begin implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The conferees direct FDA to provide a report within 30 days of enactment of this Act on how it intends to allocate this and other increases.

Food safety strategy. According to the joint explanatory statement, FDA has to do a better job of identifying more effective food safety activities that will reduce illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths associated with the 20% of foodborne illness caused by known sources. Within the funding level for food safety, FDA is directed to develop a clear strategy on how the agency can prioritize intervention methods along the farm to fork continuum to reduce illness once they have discovered the sources for a much greater proportion of unknown agents and to tie the funding levels for food safety to increased levels of activities to both the known and the unknown sources of illness. The conferees direct FDA to include this information in the FY 2013 budget justifications to Congress.

Imported seafood. The joint explanatory statement notes that FDA currently inspects less than 2% of imported seafood and that many of the imports may contain substances that are banned in the U.S. The conferees direct FDA to develop a comprehensive program for imported seafood.

(The conference version of H.R. 2112 does not appear to contain the provision from the House-passed H.R. 2112 that would have prohibited funding from being used to provide payments to the Brazil Cotton Institute in settlement of a World Trade Organization dispute. Brazil had threatened retaliation in response to the House’s inclusion of such a funding prohibition. See ITT’s Online Archives 11062604 for summary.)

APHIS. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service would receive $47 million less than in FY 2011.

FSIS. The Food Safety Inspection Service would receive $1 billion for food safety and inspection programs, approximately the same as in 2011, to continue to fund critical meat, poultry, and egg product inspection and testing activities, expand a poultry inspection pilot project that will lead to food safety improvements, etc.

Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies

FY 2012 funding in the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies section of the conference version of H.R. 2112 represents a $583 million reduction from FY 2011 funding.

ITA. The International Trade Administration would receive a funding increase of $15 million above FY 2011 levels in order to support high-priority National Export Initiatives.

ITA’s FY 2012 funding would include not less than $7 million for the Office of China Compliance and not less than $4.4 million for the China Countervailing Duty Group.

ITC. The conference version of H.R. 2112 includes $80 million for the International Trade Commission (ITC), slightly less than it received in FY 2011. The conferees adopt by reference House report language regarding internal control, financial management and information technology security weaknesses and direct the ITC to submit a report to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations not later than 120 days after enactment.

USTR. The conference agreement includes $51.3 million for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), an approximately $3.5 million increase over FY 2011 funding. The conferees expect that funds provided will be used to vigorously enforce existing trade agreements.

China monitoring and enforcement. The conferees direct the USTR to hire no less than four additional staff for the office of the Assistant USTR for Monitoring and Enforcement. These staff, who shall be fluent in Chinese, shall monitor and enforce China’s compliance with its WTO obligations and assist in early stage identification and review of Chinese measures arising out of its Five Year Plans.

Legislative affairs. The conferees note that the USTR Office of Legislative Affairs does not respond in a timely manner to requests for information from the Committees on Appropriations. Indifference shown by USTR Legislative Affairs in providing yearly budget justifications or in responding to information requests hampers the ability of the Congress to evaluate proposals and conduct oversight. Accordingly, the conferees direct the USTR to submit its detailed fiscal year 2013 budget request to the Committees on Appropriations not later than two days after the President’s fiscal year 2013 budget request is submitted.

Critical vacancies. The conferees adopt by reference House report language regarding a report on critical vacancies and direct the USTR to provide a report to the Committees on Appropriations not later than 60 days after enactment.

Transportation, Housing and Urban Development

The conference version of H.R. 2112 would provide an increase of $183 million for Transportation and Housing and Urban Development over FY 2011 levels.

National Infrastructure Investments. The conference version of H.R. 2112 would provide $500 million for National Infrastructure Investments (commonly referred to as the TIGER program), and includes language prioritizing rail, highway, and transit projects that improve or expand existing systems.

Highways. The federal highway program would receive $39.9 billion, which is the annual spending level set by the latest surface transportation extension act.

Miscellaneous Funding Restrictions, Buy American Provisions

The conference version of H.R. 2112 contains certain funding restrictions for certain activities involving the Buy American Act, certain firearms exports to Canada, tobacco, shotgun imports, etc.

Continuing Resolution

The Continuing Resolution (CR) provision of the conference version of H.R. 2112 would extend funding for all federal programs and agencies not included in the conference agreement until December 16, 2011. The House Appropriations Committee notes that this is a date-change extension only -- no other funding changes are included in the CR portion of H.R. 2112.

¹The 2012 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, also referred to by some as a “mini-bus” appropriations bill.

²The House passed its own version of H.R. 2112, which only included Agriculture/FDA funding, on June 16. 2011. The Senate then amended H.R. 2112 to include Commerce and Transportation funding, and passed it on November 1, 2011. A House-Senate conference was held to resolve the differences between the two versions.

³Also referred to as the conference report.

⁴The Joint Statement explains the effect of the accompanying conference report.

(See ITT’s Online Archives 11110859 for announcement of House-Senate conference to resolve differences between their different versions of H.R. 2112.

See ITT’s Online Archives 11062424 and 11062803 for summaries on House-passed H.R. 2112.

See ITT’s Online Archives 11072911 for summary of the House Appropriations Committee-approved FY 2012 Commerce bill.)

Conference version of H.R. 2112 and JES available here.

House Appropriations Committee press release, with link to detailed summary of H.R. 2112, available here.