Ag approps markup in House, Senate committees this week
| The House Appropriations Committee will consider the fiscal year 2025 Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies bill on Wednesday while the Senate Appropriations Committee will take up the Senate version of the same bill on Thursday. The House Appropriations markup session will begin Wednesday at 9 a.m. in Room 2359 of the Rayburn House Office Building, but the committee will consider the Labor, Health and Human Services and Transportation bill and the Housing and Urban Development bill before turning to the ag bill. The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee passed the bill on June 11. As the Alliance for a Stronger FDA noted in a message to its members on Monday, “the House Agriculture-FDA subcommittee was given a total discretionary allocation of $25.873 billion, which is $355 million (1.35%) below the Fiscal Year 2024 enacted level and $2.688 billion (9.4%) below the president’s budget request.” “The House subcommittee bill contained a reduction of less than 1% in FDA’s salaries and expenses account, which is less than the percentage reduction for the entire Agriculture/FDA bill,” the group said. “Absent meaningful changes in 302(b) allocations in the House, we expect these numbers to be unchanged at full committee.” But the committee is also scheduled to consider revised 302B spending allocations. The Senate Appropriations markup will begin Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Room 106 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.The committee has listed the fiscal year 2025 Legislative Branch bill before the ag bill and the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies bill after the ag bill. The Senate committee is also scheduled to consider 302B subcommittee allocations.The Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee did not hold a markup this year. |
| The FDA Alliance noted that Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., “in her June 18 floor statement argued for increases in non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending.” “While we do not know the allocation for the agriculture-FDA bill, we were encouraged by this statement: ‘In FY25, I cannot accept net cuts in real resource levels to NDD, which is what a 1 percent increase means.’ She made specific reference to FDA: ‘When FDA pulls an unsafe product off the shelf? That is NDD.'” In her June 18 statement, Murray said that the spending caps imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act “hold America back — undercutting our economy, competitiveness, and future — and present particularly acute challenges for all manner of essential nondefense programs people count on every day,” and that Congress needs to provide more than the 1% increase in nondefense funding provided by the act. Specifically, Murray said a 1% cut in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children “means letting families go hungry.” “WIC, a literal lifeline for nearly 7 million mothers and babies — is going to need a nearly 10% increase next year. Anything less will force us to choose which moms and babies are getting the food they need and which are getting put on waitlists,” Murray said. On rural housing, Murray said a 1% cut “means we are letting rural families lose their homes. We need a 5% increase for rural rental assistance alone. Falling short means thousands of rural families will lose assistance, and may face eviction. How is that right?” Each markup will be livestreamed. |
Trending - News
