On May 19, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved, 30-0, the FY2017 Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Rural Development, and Related Agencies spending bill, as amended (as-yet-unnumbered). The Subcommittee on Agriculture, FDA, Rural Development, and Related Agencies approved the legislation by voice vote on May 17. The House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the FY2017 bill on April 19 (see The Source, 4/22/16).
According to the Senate committee summary, the bill would provide $147.7 billion in overall funding for FY2017. This amount is $7.1 billion over FY2016 and $21.7 billion below President Obama’s FY2017 budget request. It includes $21.25 billion and $126.5 billion in discretionary and mandatory funds, respectively.
FDA would receive $4.78 billion overall, including $2.759 billion in discretionary funds. The total amount is $103 million over FY2016.
The bill would allocate $6.35 billion in discretionary funds for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); this amount is equal to FY2016 and the administration’s FY2017 request. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) would receive $79.682 billion and child nutrition programs would receive $23.2 billion.
Title II Food for Peace (P.L. 480) would receive $1.6 billion; the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition would receive $201.626 million, the same amount it received in FY2016.
Additional information will be made available once the committee releases its report.
