A House Appropriations subcommittee gave voice vote approval this morning to a fiscal 2013 spending bill that would provide $19.4 billion in discretionary spending for the USDA, FDA and the CFTC. The total represents a less than 2 percent cut from enacted appropriations for fiscal 2012 and would be $1.7 billion less than President Obama requested.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., offered an amendment to boost CFTC’s budget to $308 million, the amount requested by President Obama, but that was killed on a 5-8 vote. The bill would cut CFTC by $25 million to $180 million in fiscal 2013.
Republican appropriators say the bill attempts to curtail spending on federal nutrition programs by adding oversight and reporting requirements to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Democrats say the bill would insufficiently fund food safety programs at USDA and FDA as well as CFTC’s work to implement Dodd-Frank reforms.
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the bill in April at $20.8 billion. That would be $1.2 billion more than the fiscal 2012 enacted level, excluding disaster funding. Unlike the House bill, the Senate bill does not include funding for the CFTC.
Club For Growth Urges ‘No’ Vote on Senate Farm Bill. The Club of Growth is urging senators to vote against the Senate farm bill (S 3240). Opposition from groups such Club for Growth is likely to have its biggest impact in the House, however. The vote on final passage will be included in the group’s 2012 scorecard. The group said, “This bill makes some material reforms and spending cuts, but it still enables the government to maintain a heavy and unacceptable presence in various parts of the private sector. Similar to the Stimulus, ObamaCare, Dodd-Frank, and Cap and Trade, this is a massive bill that asserts too much government control in the private sector.”
