Agricultural News
Conference Report on Ag Appropriations to Be Voted on This Week- Includes Restriction on GIPSA Rule
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:10:48 CST
The House will vote this week (and the Senate could also vote on the conference report as early as this week) on the final conference report on the Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Commerce/Justice/Science (CJS), and Transportation/Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill also known as the "Mini-bus" (House Report 112-284). The package also contains a Continuing Resolution (CR) to avoid a government shutdown and continue federal operations until December 16, 2011 or until Congress completes the remaining nine FY 2012 Appropriations bills. This CR is a "clean" extension and includes no new funding provisions.
The legislation will prevent a potential government shutdown, support important programs and services that the American people rely on, and make hard but necessary cuts to help reduce the nation's deficit. The bill also includes several significant policy items that will help rein in government growth and overreach and help put our economy on more stable footing. The conference report was approved by the Conference Committee on wide bipartisan basis with all but one of 38 House and Senate conferees signing off on the package.
In the spending measure for agriculture, the Agriculture agencies(USDA and the FDA) and programs in this bill will receive a total of $136.6 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding, a reduction of $4.6 billion from the President's request based on the Administration's Mid-Session Review. Discretionary funding in the legislation totals $19.8 billion a reduction of $350 million below last year's level and a cut of $2.5 billion from the President's request.
Notably, the restrictions on USDA having money to implement and work further on the GIPSA marketing rule for livestock is prohibited. According to the overview provided by the Chairman of the Appropriation's Committee Hal Rogers of Kentucky- "The bill places restrictions on the implementation of a Grain Inspection and Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) proposed rule that would have allowed harmful government interference in the private market for livestock and poultry." This is similar to the language from the House version of the Ag Appropriations bill- the Senate did not specifically address the issue so the House restriction prevails.
Click here for details as released by Chairman Rogers on the funding package for FY2012 for these three areas of the government
While it is not certain that the Senate will consider this measure this week- they face a government shutdown as we head into Thanksgiving next week if the attached CR is not approved. The current continuing resolution that funds the government runs out this coming Friday, November 18.
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