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Food industry rejects proposed food tax in Obama budget
Three dozen food-industry groups wrote to congressional appropriators urging them to reject proposed food taxes in President Obama's budget for FY2013.
The letter was released in advance of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg's testimony before the House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee on Wednesday.
The proposed $4.5 billion budget for the FDA includes a $220 million annual "food facility registration fee" to help the agency carry out its expanded duties under the 2011 food safety law. Industry groups say the fee on food producers, makers and distributors would be passed on to households in the form of higher prices.
The groups point out that Congress has already twice rejected using user fees, which fund the FDA's prescription drug and medical device regulatory activities, to fund food safety efforts: first when the food safety law was being considered and again when it took up the president's 2012 budget. Instead, the groups wrote, the government should set aside taxpayer funds to pay for those efforts.
"We urge you to continue to adequately fund the food safety activities of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration," the letter says, "rather than support the imposition of any new food regulatory taxes on consumers and food makers."
