Restaurants would not have to put calorie counts on their menus until late 2017 under a bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee and cleared for floor action. The $143.9 billion USDA-FDA funding bill also delays for one year enforcement of a requirement in the 2014 farm law that farmers practice soil and water conservation in order to qualify for federally subsidized crop insurance.
Committee members rejected on a voice vote an attempt by Democrat Rose DeLauro of Connecticut to shorten the delay on menu labeling to only one year. “It’s about transparency. People can make a decision on their own,” said DeLauro, a key voice for including menu labeling in the 2010 health care law.
Alabama Republican Robert Aderholt, whose subcommittee wrote the USDA-FDA bill, said the FDA was slow in issuing guidance documents that would help food outlets comply with the law. The delay to nearly 2018 puts menu labeling on the same timeline as FDA regulations for displaying calorie information on vending machines, he said.
The FDA issued the menu-label rules last November, covering restaurant and carry-out foods including popcorn at movie theaters and muffins at a bakery. Businesses would have to list calories on menus or menu boards. The rules apply to chains with at least 20 outlets.
The outlook for the funding bill is unclear. The White House and Congress disagree over spending levels and Republicans have attached riders to spending bills that the administration views as veto bait. The White House budget office warned in a letter that the USDA-FDA bill “would under-fund … important investments and includes highly problematic ideological riders.”
The Senate has not voted on any of the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund the government; the House has passed six of the bills, says the Library of Congress. An omnibus appropriations bill or a so-called continuing resolution may become an option if the funding bills are not completed by the Oct. 1 start of fiscal 2016.
During a three-hour bill-drafting session, House appropriators defeated Democratic proposals to eliminate premium subsidies on crop insurance policies sold to the wealthiest 1 percent of U.S. farmers, and to make public the names of crop insurance beneficiaries. The government pays about 62 cents of each dollar in crop-insurance premiums and a handful of big operators receive $1 million a year apiece in the premium subsidies. The committee also denied a proposal by Republican Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska to include so-called commodity certificates, being revived for a year by the funding bill, in the overall $250,000 limit on crop subsidies.
The Republican-controlled committee voted 29-19 to retain language that restricts the new edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans “to only matters of diet and nutrient intake.” A panel of experts has suggested the guidelines should take into account the long-term sustainability of food production. The cattle industry in particular has objected to the idea.
The USDA would be required, under language added to the bill during the mark-up session, to carry out a comprehensive risk evaluation before allowing imports of raw beef from Brazil or Argentina. The department opened the door to imports from both nations during a visit to Washington by Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil. Some U.S. farm groups worry about the risk of foot-and-mouth disease.
Committee members defeated, by a vote of 26-23, a proposal by Democrat Nita Lowey to delete language that allows e-cigarettes and other newly developed tobacco products to be sold without pre-market review by FDA.
And on a tie vote, the committee decided against a ban on horse slaughter.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a small-farm advocate, criticized the House bill for cutting soil and water conservation programs by nearly $500 million. “In other words, the appropriators are using the farm bill as their ATM machine to help make up for its extremely low allocation, to the detriment of farm conservation and our long term food security,” said the group.
The Environmental Working Group objected to a rider that delays so-called conservation compliance – the linkage of crop insurance and soil conservation on the farm – for a year. “There is no reason to delay implementation of these provisions,” said EWG.
The text of the USDA/FDA funding bill as it was presented for committee action is available here. The report accompanying the appropriations bill is available here. The White House letter is available here.