House, Senate Pass 2012 Agriculture Spending Bill

The House and Senate on Thursday passed a 2012 federal spending 'minibus' bill that included the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies appropriations bill, which funds the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The House approved the bill in a 298-121 vote while the Senate voted 70-30 in favor of the bill and the President signed it today, Nov. 18.

The spending measure included the following items:

• An increase of $4 million above the administration budget for Wildlife Services' (WS) operations and the accompanying language that specifically references the importance of WS in reducing sheep predation.
• $1.004 billion for the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which does not include new user fees for meat, poultry and egg inspection.
• Full funding for both the Market Access Program and Foreign Market Development at $200 million and $34.5 million, respectfully.

"We encourage the state association leaders in the nine states that lost WS funding this year to continue to work with their congressional delegations to ensure USDA provides the increased funding to livestock protection," stated Peter Orwick, executive director of the American Sheep Industry Association. "The U.S. House of Representative's leaders followed the June vote of overwhelming support for livestock protection by working hard to increase the appropriations and restore livestock protection funds lost to the earmark ban."