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Finding FMD dollars outside the Farm Bill

Mary Kay Thatcher

There’s talk in D.C. of looking beyond the Farm Bill to fund a Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) vaccine bank.

American Farm Bureau director of congressional relations Mary Kay Thatcher says lawmakers are wrestling with Farm Bill budget constraints and legitimate concerns about an FMD outbreak.

“One of the things we’ve been talking to folks on the Hill about is (asking) why are we trying to (fund the vaccine bank) in the Farm Bill?  FMD very well could come to this country because it’s specifically introduced by some kind of terrorist sector.  Why don’t we see if we can’t get some funding out of somewhere like Homeland Security?”

Groups like the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) have been calling for additional investment in a vaccine bank, calling FMD an enormous threat to the U.S. livestock industry.

Thatcher tells Brownfield finding dollars through Homeland Security makes sense.

“Certainly they have way more money than we do right now.  And I do think it is a Homeland Security issue, regardless of whether it’s terrorists or it’s accidental.  It is going to have a big impact on our economy, if all of a sudden we have Foot-and-Mouth Disease in this country.”

NPPC is asking Congress to authorize annual funding in the five-year Farm Bill of $150 million for the FMD vaccine bank.

 

 

 

 

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