Posted February 4, 2015
President Obama
is seeking an increase fiscal 2016 to fund the proposed single food agency,
according to a Meating Place article available here. Law
360 also published an article available here
and Farm Futures here.
Lawmakers have proposed
a bill that would establish a single food safety agency by uniting the
oversight functions of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA).
The White House is requesting a budget increase of 9 percent
to $4.9 million for the FDA to allocate more funding for the agency to implement
its food safety overhaul, according to Law
360.
Vilsack explained currently there 15 agencies involved in
food safety in the federal government and there "are probably 14 too
many," focusing on the budget's goals of efficiency and efficacy in the
food system, according to Farm
Futures.
This cooperative effort would require Congressional action
to provide the President with consolidation authority, which is something that
hasn't been provided for more than 25 years.
The Safe Food Act of 2015 would create an independent food
safety agency, rather than house it within Health and Human Services (HHS), as
the White House is proposing, according to Meating Place.
“HHS is a massive organization. A new food safety agency
would be lost among the other priorities of the department, and would likely
not receive the recognition or resources necessary for it to be,” said Chris
Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at Consumer Federation of
America.
For more information on the Safe Food Act
of 2015, please visit the National Agricultural law Center’s website here.
For more information on food safety, please visit the
National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
