The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved by a unanimous vote the fiscal year 2019 Agriculture Appropriations bill, which funds the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), among other agencies.
Total discretionary funding in the Senate legislation is $23.1 billion, which is $58 million above the fiscal year (FY) 2019 enacted level. The Senate bill allows for $151.7 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding, which is $87 million below the FY2019 enacted level.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will receive $1.054 billion in the Senate bill, an increase of $5 million below the FY2019 enacted level.
The FDA will receive under the Senate bill a total of $3.148 billion in discretionary funding, an increase of $80 million above the FY2019 enacted level.
The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee passed its own FY2020 bill on May 23, 2019 and full House Appropriations Committee passed the bill on June 4, 2019. The bill was then packaged into a minibus appropriations bill (H.R. 3055), which was passed by the full House on June 25, 2019.
The bill will now either head to the full Senate for a passage vote or the bill could go straight to a conference with the House. After a final version is agreed upon and approved in both chambers, the bill would head to President Trump for his signature.
