Senate Agriculture Appropriations Bill Matches House Catfish Provision, to Be Considered by Full Committee
The Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee on July 18 approved fiscal year 2018 spending legislation that would fully fund and keep catfish inspections at the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), aligning with a bill passed July 12 by House appropriators (see 1707120035). The Trump administration’s FY18 budget requested that catfish inspections shift back to the Food and Drug Administration (see 1706280034). The bill matches the $1 billion outlined for total FSIS funding in the House Appropriations Committee-approved version (here), the Senate Appropriations Committee said (here). This amount would support more than 8,000 front-line inspection personnel for meat, poultry and egg products at more than 6,400 U.S. facilities. The Senate version also would provide $953.2 million for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, $46.8 million above the amount outlined in the House Appropriations Committee-approved version.
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The current Senate bill also essentially matches the $2.8 billion outlined for FY18 FDA discretionary funding in the House bill, and would provide $1 million over the FY17-enacted level. Total FDA funding for FY18 is $5.2 billion, $491 million above FY17. “The bill does not support new user fees or the associated cuts to budget authority as proposed in the budget request,” the Senate Appropriations Committee said. The full committee will consider the bill and any amendments on July 20. “We worked hard to maintain our agriculture budget and ensure that this legislation provides our farmers, ranchers and rural communities with the support they need to meet challenges from low commodity prices to natural disasters,” subcommittee Chairman John Hoeven, R-N.D., said in a statement.