The House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees USDA and FDA is writing its own guarantee of a gradual transition to calorie counts on menus at restaurants, carry-outs, stores and fast-food stands. It included a rider, Section 735, in its USDA-FDA funding bill saying enforcement cannot occur until a year after Dec. 1, 2016, or a year after the FDA issues the final rule on menu labels.
The FDA has declined to say when the labeling rule would be issued. There is speculation the Obama administration will try to issue the regulation before it leaves office in January.
The subcommittee is scheduled to vote on the $147-billion funding bill this afternoon. The legislation also would delay rules mandating the reduction of salt levels in school meals and the use of more whole grains.
Menu labeling was part of the 2010 healthcare reform law. The FDA issued a preliminary set of rules in 2014. In July 2015, the agency said the label rule would take effect Dec. 1, 2016. The omnibus federal spending bill enacted in late 2015 called for a delay in enforcement, which led to an FDA announcement in March of a one-year grace period after it issues the final rule.
“The law has the backing of the restaurant industry, which had pushed for a federal menu-labeling standard as opposed to a smorgasbord of laws in states and localities across the country,” said Restaurant News. “The federal law also includes retailers that sell prepared food, which compete directly with restaurateurs.”
Another provision of the bill, Section 714, limits the cost-sharing Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to $1.425 billion and limits enrollment in the Conservation Stewardship Program, a green-payments initiative, to 8 million acres during the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) said EQIP would be cut by $113 million from levels authorized in the 2014 farm law, and CSP would be cut 20 percent, or $300 million.
“Farm bill mandatory spending is not their business, and these cuts will result in even more farmers and ranchers being left out of conservation initiatives to protect and restore natural resources, with demand further outstripping supply,” said the NSAC, a small-farm advocacy group.