Food-safety advocates were pleased to see increased funding for the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System for Enteric Bacteria (NARMS) in the $1.1-trillion spending bill President Barack Obama signed on Tuesday. The bill provides almost $2.6 billion in discretionary funding for the Food and Drug Administration, including $903 million…
Foodborne Illness Victims Request Additional FSMA Funding
Victims of foodborne illness and their families are urging Congress to appropriate additional funding for implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Several Congress members and plenty of food safety advocates have written to the leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees this year asking that they increase FSMA funding in the next…
Why FDA Needs FSMA Resources Now
(Editor’s note: The following is in response to “Experts Debate Whether Food Safety Funding is Adequate,” published April 24, 2014, on Food Safety News.) Two questions regarding the adequacy of food safety funding for the Food and Drug Administration were asked at last week’s National Food Policy Conference. …
Senators Request ‘Robust’ Funding for Food Safety
Ahead of Thursday’s coinciding congressional hearings on budgets for the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), U.S. Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) sent a letter to their colleagues, asking them to support “robust” food-safety funding. 
“We ask that the [Senate Appropriations] Subcommittee provide robust…
White House Threatens to Veto House Ag Appropriations Bill
The Obama administration said on Tuesday it would likely veto the House agriculture appropriations bill, just as versions of the funding provisions are moving through both the House and Senate.
“The bill severely undermines key investments in financial oversight in a manner that would cripple Wall Street reform, and impedes implementation of statutorily-mandated financial regulations,”…
Pew Praises Rep. Latham for House Funding Increase for FDA
The Pew Charitable Trusts commended Congressman Tom Latham (R-IA) last week for his leadership in securing approximately $27 million in additional food safety funding for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the appropriations bill that is moving through the House. As Food Safety News reported Friday, the food safety funding boost was approved…
House Panel Approves Bill To Keep FDA Funding Flat
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture Wednesday approved funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for fiscal year 2013 with no new funding for food safety. 
The bill — which still must go through the full House Appropriations Committee and the House before being reconciled with the Senate…
Hamburg: FDA Needs More Resources for Food Safety
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg Thursday warned of more outbreaks and import problems if food safety is not properly funded and defended a proposal to collect registration fees to help pay for oversight.
During a House appropriations hearing on the FDA’s budget, which is increasingly supplemented by fees aimed at drug makers, …
Commissioner Hamburg: FDA Food Safety Funding Vulnerable
U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Margaret Hamburg emphasized the stark budget challenge facing the agency, which is charged with overseeing 80 percent of the food supply, in a speech before a food policy audience in Washington, DC Tuesday.
The FDA’s hundred-year-old “promise” to protect public health “speaks to government’s most basic function: to safeguard the …
DeLauro Hits Boehner, GOP on Food Safety Funding
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a longtime hawk on food safety issues, once again blasted Republicans for seeking cuts to federal food safety programs, this time singling out Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) whose own district is currently dealing with an E. coli outbreak.
Tyson Fresh Meats recalled more than 131,000 pounds of …