FSMA Not Mentioned In Obama's Proposed Budget Highlights
By Laurel Maloy, contributing writer, Food Online
Sold to American consumers and the food industry as the means to ensure food safety, traceability, and accountability, FSMA does not even get a nod in FY2015 government spending
President Obama’s proposed FY2015 budget didn’t even warrant a mention of the federal food safety program in his budget highlights. At a time when food safety is a priority and implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is imminent, an FDA budget cut is announced. The proposed cut will eliminate 202 authorized and 60 already filled positions from the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). This is just a few short weeks after Michael Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine, admitted the FDA does not have the resources to implement FSMA.
Obama signed FSMA into law in Jan 2011, with implementation set to begin June 2015. At the time, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated a necessary budget increase of almost $600 million to fund implementation. This point was made clear before the Energy and Commerce Committee in Michael Taylor’s, Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine, statement on Feb 5, “We will continue efforts to make the best use of the resources we have, but simply put, we cannot achieve FDA’s vision of a modern food safety system and a safer food supply without a significant increase in resources.”
The FDA must feel like the odd man out. Caught in the middle between the USDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the FDA is granted an increased expenditure authority of less than $100,000. The proposed appropriations side of the FSIS budget is to be cut by $9 million and HHS’s $77.1 billion budget makes no mention at all of the FDA’s mandate to implement FSMA.
The proposed budget decreases are justified by the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack. He told reporters the reduction was reasonable due to an 11 percent decline in the incidences of illnesses caused by contaminated meat, poultry, and eggs this past year. However, the projected number of overall foodborne illnesses in FY2015 remains unchanged from FY2014 at 23 different types.
Additionally, President Obama’s proposed budget includes cuts in the number of full time FSIS employees it can hire, while being tasked with providing federally funded inspections at the same number of plants. Obama also wants no fewer than 148 full time FSIS employees dedicated to enforcing the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, which has minimal impact on FSMA. Both the FDA and FSIS budgets are expecting to raise some funds from fees levied on the food industry, namely through food import services and from registration and inspection fees. The USDA’s budget is expected to be supplemented by other fees. Food safety experts will most likely argue that the proposed Federal budget does not give near enough weight or money to the FDA. Its mission to enhance the safety of our food supply through the implementation of FSMA is in danger of failing.
We asked this question in February: Is FSMA Doomed Before It Can Be Implemented? The question still remains, “Why are we spending the resources to establish rules for regulation that cannot be carried out now and may be a long ways from being carried out, if at all?”