News

Senate ag appropriations bill advances

The Senate Appropriations Committee has passed a Fiscal Year 2016 funding bill for agriculture and rural development. It’s nearly 144-Billion dollars in discretionary and mandatory spending.

The bill provides $2.7 billion to support agricultural research conducted by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and land grant and non-land grant universities.

It includes $20 million above the President’s budget request for APHIS and $5 million above the Fiscal Year 2015 enacted level.

It has more money for conservation programs and rejects the President’s budget proposal to reduce conservation technical assistance to landowners and producers.

The legislation includes $1 Billion for Food Safety and Inspection supporting more than 8,000 frontline inspection personnel for meat, poultry, and egg products.

The bill includes more than $2 Billion in discretionary funding for the Food and Drug Administration including an increase for food safety activities.

It also includes a one-year delay for FDA to implement a new menu labeling regulation.

The Senate bill decreases funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, because of declining enrollments and increases it for child nutrition programs.