Summary of FY2018 Agriculture Appropriations Act - Committee mark

The Agriculture bill’s insufficient allocation results in consequential reductions for food aid, and underfunding CFTC’s enforcement of consumer financial protections. 

2017 enacted level:   $21.13 billion

2018 budget request:            $15.36 billion

2018 mark:                 $20.00 billion

The Chairman’s mark provides:

• $1.4 billion for Food for Peace, which is $200 million less than the FY2017 enacted level.
• $185 million for the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program, which is $16 million less than the FY2017 enacted level.
• $248 million for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), $2 million less than the FY2017 level and $33.5 million less than the level requested by the acting Republican chairman of CFTC.           
• $2.77 billion for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), equal to the FY2017 enacted level.
• $23 million for the summer EBT program, which is equal to the FY2017 enacted level. 
• $6.15 billion in discretionary funding for Special Supplemental Nutrition for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which is sufficient to meet expected need based on current estimates.
• Child nutrition and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) mandatory appropriations are consistent with current estimates.

The Chairman’s mark includes the following provisions:

• Exempting “premium cigars” from the Tobacco Control Act’s pre-market review requirement by exempting them from FDA’s “deeming” proposal
• Exempting unregulated tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to stay on the market without pre-market review by FDA. 
• Allowing the chairman of CFTC to reduce the compensation of CFTC employees in order to avoid furloughs, irrespective of an existing collective bargaining agreement.
• Directing FDA and USDA to coordinate on consumer outreach “to promote understanding and acceptance of agricultural biotechnology and biotechnology-derived food products and animal feed,” and providing $1.5 million for this purpose, half the amount provided in FY2017.
• Delaying a final rule on nutritional labeling on menus in restaurants by at least one year.
• Continuing to allow waivers for school districts to comply with sodium and whole grains standards in school lunches and continuing to prevent any adjustment of sodium.
• Prohibiting processed poultry from China from use in USDA meal programs.
• Setting out preconditions for import into the United States any poultry slaughtered in China.
• Prohibiting FDA from reviewing or approving a drug or biological “in which a human embryo is intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification.”

The Chairman’s mark does not include:

• A prohibition of funding to inspect facilities for the slaughter of horses for human consumption.
• The “GIPSA rider” stopping implementation of a USDA rule protecting poultry farmers from strong-arm tactics of the processing industry.