Summary of 2017 Agriculture Appropriations bill

2017 mark:                          $21.3 billion

2017 request:                    $21.6 billion

2016 enacted:                    $21.75 billion

The Chairman’s mark provides:

• $1.466 billion for Food for Peace, which is equal to the 2016 enacted level and $116 million more than the President’s budget request.
• $201.626 million for the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program, which is equal to the 2016 enacted level and $20 million more than President’s budget request.
• $250 million for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which is equal to the 2016 enacted level and $80 million less than the President’s budget request.    
• $2.7 billion for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is $33 million more than the 2016 enacted level and $23 million more than the President’s budget request.
• $21 million for the summer EBT program, which is $2 million less than the 2016 enacted level and $5 million less than the President’s budget request. 
• $6.35 billion in discretionary funding for Special Supplemental Nutrition for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which is equal to the President’s request to meet expected need, however also includes a $100 million rescission.

The Chairman’s mark includes the following provisions:

• Exempting “premium cigars” from the Tobacco Control Act’s pre-market review requirement by exempting them from FDA’s “deeming” proposal
• Directing FDA and USDA to coordinate on consumer outreach “to promote understanding and acceptance of agricultural biotechnology and biotechnology-derived food products and animal feed,” and providing $3 million for this purpose.
• Delaying a final rule on nutritional labeling on menus in restaurants by at least one year.
• Continuing to allow waivers for school districts to comply with sodium and whole grains standards in school lunches and continuing to prevent any adjustment of sodium.
• Prohibiting processed poultry from China from use in USDA meal programs.
• Prohibiting FDA from reviewing or approving a drug or biological “in which a human embryo is intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification.”

The Chairman’s mark does not include:

• A prohibition of funding to inspect facilities for the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
• “GIPSA rider” stopping implementation of a USDA rule protecting poultry farmers from strong-arm tactics of the processing industry (featured by John Oliver on HBO’s Last Week Tonight)