The Obama administration is requesting cuts at most agencies in its 2014 budget, released on Wednesday, but seeking a significant increase in funding at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to help the agency implement
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Congress Passes Bill to Avert Meat Inspector Furloughs
The House on Thursday passed a continuing resolution that will head off furloughs for U.S. meat inspectors that would have taken place this summer as a result of the sequester. The measure, introduced by Sens.
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Washington Asks Whether Sequester Impact Was Overstated
Five days after across-the-board budget cuts, known as the sequester, officially kicked in at most federal agencies, some lawmakers and newspaper fact-checkers are beginning to seriously question whether the doomsday scenario painted by the White…
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Sequester Expected to Have Big Impact on Food Safety; Details Unknown
Other than a memo put out by the White House earlier this month, which forecast reduced food inspections and meat inspector furloughs, there is not much known about exactly how the sequester, scheduled to kick…
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Industry: Government is Obligated to Provide Meat Inspection, Even With Sequester
After the White House and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack suggested that the automatic budget cuts, known as the sequester, could force the government to furlough all federal meat inspectors, the food industry is arguing that…
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MDP Shuts Down; USDA Testing of Produce for Pathogens Halted
The Microbiological Data Program, which used to conduct 80 percent of all federal produce testing for pathogens like Salmonella and Listeria, officially shut down on December 31, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official confirmed.
The…
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Fiscal Cliff Deal Dodges Budget Cuts, Includes Partial Farm Bill Extension
Congress cleared a bill late Tuesday to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff” that will delay automatic budget cuts to agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control, avoid tax…
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Letter From The Editor: Zero Based Budgeting
It was while doing my time in academia that I was first introduced to zero based budgeting. We learned in a political science class on government finance that the new Governor of Georgia, a peanut…
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OMB Report Asks Congress to Avoid Sequestration
The sequestration slated to take effect at the first of the year is “bad policy,” and Congress should avoid it by taking action on deficit reduction, says a recent analysis by the White House Office…
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Taylor: Sequestration Would Be “Huge Blow” to Food Safety Progress
Unless Congress does something dramatic, most government agencies will see an automatic 8 percent budget cut as of the first of the year — a consequence of the deal struck during the contentious fight over…
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