On June 5, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies approved, by voice vote, the FY2014 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bill (as-yet-unnumbered).
According to a committee summary, the bill would provide $139.4 billion in overall funding in FY2014. This amount is $52 million below FY2013 and $2.6 billion below President Obama’s FY2014 budget request. This total includes $19.5 billion in discretionary funds.
The measure would provide nearly $2.5 billion in discretionary funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in FY2014. This amount, which does not include funding for user fees, is $24 million over FY2013. The president requested $2.558 billion for the FDA in his FY2014 budget submission to Congress.
The bill also would provide funding for domestic and international food and nutrition programs. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) would receive $6.7 billion in FY2014. This amount is $214 million below FY2013 and $487 million below the president’s request. The bill also includes language that would increase oversight and monitoring to “ensure proper use of taxpayer dollars.”
The Child Nutrition Program would receive $20.45 billion in mandatory funding for FY2014, which is about $1 billion over FY2013 and below the president’s request of $20.487 billion.
The legislation would provide $76.3 billion in mandatory funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This amount is $958 million below FY2013 and $2 billion below the administration’s FY2014 request. The bill includes strong oversight language to “weed out and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse from the program.”
The Food for Peace program (P.L. 480) would receive $1.15 billion in FY2014. This amount is $284 million below FY2013 and does not reflect the president’s proposal to shift the program to the United States Agency for International Development.
Additional details will become available once the committee releases its report on the bill.
