skip to main content

Additional Spending Measures Clear House, Senate

This week, Congress passed the conference report for the FY2010 Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies spending bill (H.R. 2997). Also this week, the Senate approved the FY2010 Defense (H.R. 3326) appropriations bill.

Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies

On October 7, the House approved, 263-162, the Agriculture conference report. The Senate approved the report on October 8, 76-22. The House passed its version of the spending measure on July 9; the Senate approved its version (S. 1406) on July 6 (see The Source, 7/10/09 and 8/7/09, respectively).

The report contains $121.23 billion in overall funding for programs within the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and other agencies. This amount is $263.825 million more than FY2009, $2.689 billion less than the president’s request, $2.613 billion less than the House-passed bill, and $3.29 billion less than the Senate-passed bill.

Within the Food and Nutrition Service, the conference report would provide $16.856 billion for Child Nutrition Services and $7.252 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Within the total for WIC, $80 million would be provided for breastfeeding peer counseling and other related activities.

The measure also includes $58.278 billion for the Special Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly the Food Stamp program; $247.979 million for the Commodity Assistance program; $1.69 billion for the P.L. 480 Food for Peace program; and $209.5 million for the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition program.

The Food and Drug Administration would receive $2.362 billion; this amount does not include the funds for user fees.

Defense

On October 6, the Senate passed, 93-7, the FY2010 Defense spending bill (H.R. 3326). The House approved the legislation on July 30 (see The Source, 7/31/09); the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the bill on September 10 (see The Source, 9/11/09).

The bill contains funding for the Defense Health Program and breast and ovarian cancer research programs.

During consideration of the bill, the Senate adopted, 68-30, an amendment by Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to prohibit funding of federal contracts with contractors and their subsidiaries that require their employees to sign mandatory arbitration clauses for claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (P.L. 88-352) or claims arising from sexual assault or harassment.