Senate Approps adds amendments at markup
July 16, 2015 |07:18 PM
Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee today approved the fiscal year 2016 Agriculture appropriations bill by a vote of 28 to 2 and added a series of amendments to:
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-Md., voted against the overall bill.
The Argentine and Brazil beef amendment and the directive on animal welfare, which was spurred by allegations of animal mistreatment at the U.S. Animal Meat Research Center in Clay Center, Neb., were contained in a manager’s package offered by Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., offered the school meals amendment and it passed by a voice vote.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, sponsored the salmon amendment. Noting that questions have been raised about whether it would lead to foods containing genetically modified plants being labeled, Murkowksi said that it would not. The issue, she said, is that “corn doesn’t swim from one field to another.”
It passed by a voice vote.
Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., proposed a Democratic amendment to increase funding throughout the bill by $890 million. But it failed on a 14 to 16 party line vote.
The committee voted down an amendment offered by Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that would have increased funding for Food and Drug Administration food safety activities by nearly $69 million if the committee gets more money to spend.
The vote on the Durbin amendment was 14 to 16, along party lines.
“The food safety allocation in this bill falls short of what is needed to reduce foodborne illness in this country,” Durbin said in an statement.
Durbin added he is hopeful that as the bill moves through the appropriations process, Democrats and Republicans can agree to increase the funding for FDA’s implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., also offered an amendment that would have altered the sugar program, but she withdrew it.
The American Sugar Alliance distributed a series of letters from farm groups including the American Farm Bureau Federation opposing the amendment Shaheen offered with Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.
The amendment to require USDA to release the rule on marine animals for public comment was sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and it provoked considerable discussion.
Feinstein said the amendment was aimed at Sea World, where treatment of orcas has been controversial.
Feinstein said that USDA, which under the Animal Welfare Act has responsibility for animals kept in zoo-like conditions and circuses, has proposed rewriting 20-year old regulations on marine animals since 1995, but that the regulation has been held up at the Office of Management and Budget since 2012. Feinstein blamed lobbying for the holdup in issuing the rule for public comment.
“There is a lot of concern about the confinement of orcas in theme parks,” Feinstein said. “The orca is a very special sea animal. It is intelligent, if you look at the mothers with the children you see how special they are.”
She also noted that trainers have lost their lives. But Feinstein said that “there are different points of view, so science needs to take a look at it in an unbiased way.”
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., questioned whether it would apply to otters in the Oklahoma City zoo and also whether beginning a public comment period would mean that USDA would move forward with the rule.
Merkley noted that the association of zoos and aquariums neither favors nor opposes Feinstein’s amendment.
Murkowksi said that perhaps it should just cover orcas, but Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said, “We can’t get into species.”
Murkowski also noted that after the public comment period USDA could decide to move forward with the rule or withdraw it.
The amendment passed by a vote of 18 to 12.
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.Mex., offered the horse slaughter amendment, which passed on a voice vote.
- Stop USDA from allowing imports of beef from Argentina and Brazil.
- Direct USDA’s Agricultural Research Service to improve animal welfare standards at its research stations.
- Continue a ban on inspection of horse meat for human consumption.
- Continue to stop USDA from reducing sodium levels further in school meals and to allow schools to request waivers from 100 percent whole grain rich requirements for bread, cereal and pasta products.
- Require the department to publish a rule on the care of large marine animals in captivity.
- Continue a policy of requiring labeling for genetically modified salmon if the Food and Drug Administration approves it.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-Md., voted against the overall bill.
The Argentine and Brazil beef amendment and the directive on animal welfare, which was spurred by allegations of animal mistreatment at the U.S. Animal Meat Research Center in Clay Center, Neb., were contained in a manager’s package offered by Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jerry Moran, R-Kan.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., offered the school meals amendment and it passed by a voice vote.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, sponsored the salmon amendment. Noting that questions have been raised about whether it would lead to foods containing genetically modified plants being labeled, Murkowksi said that it would not. The issue, she said, is that “corn doesn’t swim from one field to another.”
It passed by a voice vote.
Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., proposed a Democratic amendment to increase funding throughout the bill by $890 million. But it failed on a 14 to 16 party line vote.
The committee voted down an amendment offered by Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that would have increased funding for Food and Drug Administration food safety activities by nearly $69 million if the committee gets more money to spend.
The vote on the Durbin amendment was 14 to 16, along party lines.
“The food safety allocation in this bill falls short of what is needed to reduce foodborne illness in this country,” Durbin said in an statement.
Durbin added he is hopeful that as the bill moves through the appropriations process, Democrats and Republicans can agree to increase the funding for FDA’s implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., also offered an amendment that would have altered the sugar program, but she withdrew it.
The American Sugar Alliance distributed a series of letters from farm groups including the American Farm Bureau Federation opposing the amendment Shaheen offered with Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.
The amendment to require USDA to release the rule on marine animals for public comment was sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and it provoked considerable discussion.
Feinstein said the amendment was aimed at Sea World, where treatment of orcas has been controversial.
Feinstein said that USDA, which under the Animal Welfare Act has responsibility for animals kept in zoo-like conditions and circuses, has proposed rewriting 20-year old regulations on marine animals since 1995, but that the regulation has been held up at the Office of Management and Budget since 2012. Feinstein blamed lobbying for the holdup in issuing the rule for public comment.
“There is a lot of concern about the confinement of orcas in theme parks,” Feinstein said. “The orca is a very special sea animal. It is intelligent, if you look at the mothers with the children you see how special they are.”
She also noted that trainers have lost their lives. But Feinstein said that “there are different points of view, so science needs to take a look at it in an unbiased way.”
Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., questioned whether it would apply to otters in the Oklahoma City zoo and also whether beginning a public comment period would mean that USDA would move forward with the rule.
Merkley noted that the association of zoos and aquariums neither favors nor opposes Feinstein’s amendment.
Murkowksi said that perhaps it should just cover orcas, but Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said, “We can’t get into species.”
Murkowski also noted that after the public comment period USDA could decide to move forward with the rule or withdraw it.
The amendment passed by a vote of 18 to 12.
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.Mex., offered the horse slaughter amendment, which passed on a voice vote.
