LegiStorm

Summary:

The Subcommittees on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees oversee the budgets of two principal federal food safety agencies at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). FDA, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for ensuring the safety of the majority of all domestic and imported food products (except for meat and poultry products). FSIS, an agency at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, regulates most meat, poultry, and processed egg products. Combined appropriations and fees collected to cover food safety activities at FDA and USDA totaled an estimated $2.4 billion in FY2015, more or less evenly split between the two agencies. FSIS is responsible for roughly 10%-20% of the U.S. food supply, while FDA is responsible for the remaining 80%-90%. In the past few years, appropriators have increased funding for FDA's Foods program activities—one of the agency's primary program areas focused on food safety activities—more than doubling it from $435.5 million in FY2005 to $903.4 million in FY2015. In addition, FDA's food safety activities receive other program-level funding as part of FDA's overall budget. (FDA's Foods program accounts for about one-third of FDA's total appropriation.) FDA reports that food safety funding at FDA totaled $1.2 billion in FY2015. The FY2016 Agriculture appropriation was enacted in December 2015, as part of an omnibus appropriations act (P.L. 114-113). For FDA's food safety activities, including Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA, P.L. 111-353) implementation, the enacted FY2016 appropriation provides for a $104.5 million increase in budget authority, nearly matching that requested in the Administration's FY2016 budget ($109.5 million). This could raise the budget authority for FDA's food safety activities to more than $1.3 billion annually. The enacted FY2016 appropriations provide $987.3 million for FDA's Foods program, which is identical to the amount requested by the Administration. Separately, for FSIS, the enacted FY2016 Agriculture appropriation is $1.015 billion, above the Administration's requested appropriation ($1.012 billion). These congressional appropriations would be augmented by existing (currently authorized) user fees. The Administration's FY2016 request for FDA and FSIS proposed a series of new user fees to augment both agencies' food safety activities. As in previous budget debates, however, appropriators did not include any new user fee proposals as part of either agency's FY2016 appropriations. The FY2016 appropriation further contains a number of policy riders for a range of FDA and USDA food safety and other food-related programs. Increased funding for food safety activities at FDA is largely in response to additional responsibilities following the enactment of the FDA FSMA in the 111th Congress. FSMA was the largest expansion of FDA's food safety authorities since the 1930s. FSMA authorized additional appropriations and staff for the agency's food safety activities, and also provided limited additional funding through industry-paid user fees. However, according to FDA, during the past five years (FY2011-FY2015) it has received increases to its funding base totaling $168 million for enacted changes to its food safety programs. Previously, FDA had reported that an additional $400 million to $450 million per year above the FY2012 base is needed to fully implement FSMA. FDA officials continue to note that without additional funding there will be a significant funding gap for FSMA implementation. FSMA did not directly address meat and poultry products under USDA's jurisdiction.