President Obama has released the fiscal year 2016 budget. Highlights of what is included in the budget are as follows:
The budget included a request for the remaining money needed to complete the Southeast Research Poultry Lab in Athens, Georgia.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS): The president requested $1.01 billion for the USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service, which is a $4.9 million decrease from the 2015 enacted level. There is a decrease in funding for implementing new methods for poultry slaughter inspection and proposes a performance based user-fee which will be charged to plants that have sample failures or require additional inspection activities due to regulatory non-compliance.
The president is again asking Congress to revive an authority enabling him to submit fast-track proposals to reorganize or consolidate federal programs and agencies in order to reduce the size of government or cut costs. The budget includes a variety of proposed reforms across government designed to drive efficiency and accountability; prevent duplication; and make government work better and smarter for the American people.
One of these reorganizations the president would propose with this authority is to consolidate the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the food safety components of the Food and Drug Administration to create a new agency at Health and Human Services (HHS). This consolidation could deliver a “one-stop” shop for most of the issues that mean the most for consumers and industry and provide centralized leadership to allocate resources strategically across all food products.
The Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS): The APHIS fiscal year 2016 budget proposed a discretionary appropriation of about $855.8 million, a reduction of $15.5 million from fiscal year 2015 enacted. Of chief importance is a total of $289 million to protect the health of livestock, poultry, and other animals; $29 million for Animal Welfare; $202 Agricultural Quarantine Inspection User Fees; and $3 million for H1N1 transfer from HHS. The budget also proposes $3.2 million for buildings and facilities, for maintenance, inspection facilities, and animal quarantine stations.
The Grain Inspection and Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA): For fiscal year 2016, the budget includes a total authority of $99 million, of which $55 million is from existing inspection and weighing user fees, and $44 million for salaries and expenses.
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS): The 2016 Salaries and Expenses budget for ARS requests $1.192 billion which includes increases for new and expanded research initiatives in livestock genetics; combatting antimicrobial resistance; agricultural sustainability; and vertical farming to name a few. Under livestock protection, emphasis is given to methods and procedures to control animal diseases through the discovery and development of diagnostics, vaccines, bio therapeutics, animal genomics applications, disease management systems, animal disease models, and farm biosecurity measures. Also included are the funds necessary to complete the modernization of the Southeast Research Poultry Lab in Athens Georgia ($114) million and funding for the modernization of Building 307 at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland ($37 million).
The Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development programs were funded at current levels – $200 million and $34.5 million, respectively.
