Appropriators approve agriculture cuts, target farm subsidies and Brazil

By Erik Wasson - 06/01/11 08:24 AM ET

The House Appropriations Committee late Tuesday approved a $125.5 billion agriculture appropriations bill that includes major cuts to food safety and nutrition programs, as well as an agency charged with implementing part of the new financial regulatory reform law.

In total, the bill cuts spending by more than $7 billion from President Obama’s request. The bill reduces discretionary spending by $2.7 billion from last year’s level.

The marathon markup session featured 12 approved amendments, including one that restores $147 million to the the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food assistance program, which had otherwise been cut by $832 million, or 12 percent.

That amendment, by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), takes the money from funds that are to be paid to Brazil in order to settle a dispute at the World Trade Organization over cotton subsidies the U.S. lost. Not making the payment could open the U.S. to WTO-sanctioned trade retaliation by Brazil.

The liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated the original cuts would force WIC to turn away 325,000 to 475,000 eligible low-income women and young children next year.

The bill cut the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) budget by 11.5 percent, or roughly $285 million, a move that would roll back a string of hard-fought increases that began during the last years of the George W. Bush administration.

An amendment, sponsored by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), will further limit FDA's ability to regulate. It states that FDA regulations can only be implemented if the secretary of Agriculture deems them based on “hard science.”

Its 2012 spending bill also slashes funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). President Obama requested an increase of more than $100 million for the regulatory agency, but House Republicans responded by cutting some $30 million from last year's spending levels.

In a sign of the unpopularity of farm subsidies, the committee approved an amendment by deficit hawk Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) that would end direct farm payments to applicants with adjusted gross income over $250,000 per year.

Under the 2008 farm bill, applicants with more than $500,000 in adjusted gross income from off-farm sources or $750,000 in on-farm AGI are not eligible for subsidy payments.