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Some House appropriators see shortfall in funding for food safety rule education
[/title][fusion_text]Friday, February 26th 2016
The $19 million the Food and Drug Administration is sending to states to help fruit and vegetable growers understand the agency’s new produce safety rule is “a good start,” Stephen Ostroff, who’s been acting FDA commissioner since early last year, told a House Appropriations subcommittee today. Ostroff had just spent two and a half hours responding to questions ranging from sodium in Americans’ diets to arsenic in rice, but a recurring theme was the resources required to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in January 2011 that FDA would need $583 million to implement FSMA. So far, including the fiscal 2017 request, the agency is about $147 million short. “You don’t have the money to deal with what FSMA asks you to do,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told Ostroff. Ostroff didn’t disagree, but put his best face forward. In contrast to a hearing on Tuesday, when USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service chief Al Almanza heard some blistering criticism from DeLauro about the service’s inspection and monitoring resources, Ostroff’s appearance engendered little sound and fury. The only exception was when Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., said Ostroff was an expert in the language of bureaucracy because he could not promise when certain actions would be completed. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, was one of a few members of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development and FDA to express concern about the produce safety rule published Nov. 27. The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture has said there isn’t enough money for states to help implement the produce rule. FDA’s fiscal 2017 budget proposes $25.3 million in new spending to implement FSMA, $11 million of which would go to states for the produce safety rule – on top of the $19 million being disbursed this year. The Senate yesterday confirmed Dr. Robert Califf as the new FDA commissioner. Ostroff, FDA’s chief scientist, had been serving as acting commissioner since Dr. Margaret Hamburg left the post early last year.
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