The House Appropriations Committee has approved a $19.45 billion funding bill to support food safety work by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for fiscal year 2014.
FDA would see increases in discretionary funding and revenue from user fees, totaling $4.3 billion. “Within this total, food safety activities are increased by $27 million, and drug safety activities are increased by $2.5 million,” according to the committee. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service would get $999 million, a $31 million decrease over the last fiscal year. The Agricultural Research Service would get $2.5 billion.
Public health supporters were pleased that the bill directs FDA to spend $7.8 million on the National Microbial Resistance Monitoring System and to identify a data collection approach that can “assess the effectiveness of policies to curb antibiotic resistance.”
The legislation, which cleared the full appropriations committee by voice vote, will next be considered by the full House, where it will likely be subject to many amendments.
House Advances Bill to Enhance Food Safety Funding
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