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FDA to Get Slight Increase in Food-Safety Funding

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 December 2007, 06:00 CST

By Julie Schmit

The Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to receive a modest increase in food-safety funding next year despite calls from many corners that it needs far more to keep up with soaring imports and heightened food-safety concerns.

A $516 billion spending bill working its way through Congress includes $513 million for FDA food-safety programs, up $56 million from the 2007 fiscal year. The new budget is for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

The appropriation is 12% more than the agency got for food safety in fiscal 2007. But half the increase will be eaten up by annual cost increases, including pay raises, and the FDA won't get the other half until July -- and only then if it has a performance plan in place that lawmakers find adequate.

"In the budget climate we're in, any increase is better than nothing," says Scott Faber of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents foodmakers. "But we're disappointed and surprised in light of soaring imports and declining consumer confidence." A broad coalition of groups, including the GMA, have pushed for bigger food-safety increases in the past year because of a string of high-profile food recalls. The Coalition for a Stronger FDA, which includes three former secretaries of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, has sought 15% increases for the FDA for each of the next five years.

Coalition supporter William Hubbard, a former FDA associate commissioner, has testified before Congress that the FDA has lost 1,000 food-safety staffers in the past decade, while food-safety imports have soared and the domestic industry has continued to expand.

An FDA advisory panel -- composed of outside experts -- added fuel to the debate two weeks ago with a report warning that the FDA's food- and drug-safety programs were so underfunded and understaffed that American lives were at risk. The panel noted that the FDA, which regulates 80% of America's food, had let inspections of the food supply fall by 78% in the past 35 years because of increasing numbers of products and inadequate funding. It said consumers pay about 1.5 cents a day to fund the FDA, and 3 cents a day wouldn't be too much to ensure food and drug safety.

The $56 million increase "is a drop in the bucket for what the agency really needs," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, food-safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Even though consumer groups and others hoped for more, the proposed increase indicates a "gradual awakening that the agency responsible for protecting consumers needs to be adequately funded," says Chris Waldrop of the Consumer Federation of America.

The FDA's food-safety appropriation in the budget bill -- which is expected to win approval from President Bush once Congress passes it -- is lower than what the Senate sought, $522 million, but higher than what the House sought, $503 million, Faber says.

*Budget has fewer pet projects, 2A (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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