Bill Clinton photo

Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 4554 - Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, FY 1995

July 08, 1994

STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY

(Sent 7/11/94)
(Senate Floor)
(Sponsors: Byrd (D), West Virginia; Bumpers (D), Arkansas)

This Statement of Administration Policy provides the Administration's views on H.R. 4554, the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Hill, FT 1995, as reported by the Senate Appropriations committee.

The Administration supports the Committee-reported H.R. 4554. The Administration appreciates the Committee's support for the President/s investment priorities. In particular, the Administration is pleased with funding provided for the Women, Infants, and children (WIC) Program and for Electronic Benefit Transfers.

The Administration has some concerns with the Committee bill, which are discussed below.

Prescription Drug User Fees

The Administration is pleased that the Committee bill would allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to increase its collection of prescription drug user fees to $79 million — up from $54 million in FY 1994 i and would provide for $151 million in general user fees. The Administration notes that FDA could collect another $100 million in general user fees, collection of these fees would permit increased funding of Presidential investments and other key items under the Committee's jurisdiction.

Federal Crop Insurance

The Committee has not funded $213 million for the administrative expense reimbursements from the Department of Agriculture to private crop insurance companies. Without these reimbursements, private companies would not sell or adjust crop insurance policies.

The committee assumes that the Agriculture committees would authorize mandatory spending to pay for these expense reimbursements. However, this assumption is not consistent with the Administration's crop insurance reform proposal and would result in additional direct spending of over $200 million in FY 199S that would be associated with the reform proposal. This could render the reform proposal subject to a point of order under "pay-as-you-go 1' rules and mate crop insurance reform unachievable this year.

The Administration urges the Senate to fund these administrative expense reimbursements or, alternatively, either to provide explicit authority for the mandatory crop Insurance Fund to make these reimbursements or work to find an appropriate PAYGO offset, without changes that are consistent with enactment of the reform proposal, the Committee's action could effectively terminate the crop insurance program in FY 1995.

Additional Administration concerns with the Committee-reported hill are contained in the attachment.

Attachment


Attachment
(Senate Floor)

ADDITIONAL CONCERNS

H.R. 4554 — AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS BILL, FY 1995

(AS REPORTED BY THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE)

The Administration looks forward to working with the Congress later in the process in an effort to address the following concerns:

Department of Agriculture

  • Unrequested Funding. The Committee has earmarked unrequested funding ($60 million in budget authority for 38 grants through the Cooperative State Research Service (CSRS)) to land grant universities for construction, repair, or improvement of equipment or facilities at the universities. The Committee has also provided unrequested funding ($37 million in budget authority) for CSRS research grants. These grants would not be competitively awarded and would reduce funding for projects that might be better qualified to receive scarce Federal funds.

    The Committee hill would also fund the Small Watershed Program at $50 million above the President's request and the Rural Electrification Administration (particularly five-percent direct loans to telephone borrowers) at $42 million above the request.

    Finally, the committee bill, Would fund certain mandatory programs of the commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) above/the President's request, the Market Promotion Program is funded at $15 million over the request, and the sunflower Oil Assistance Program and Cottonseed Oil Assistance program are funded at $50 million over the request.

    The Administration urges the Senate to redirect funds from these programs in order to restore, at least partially, the funding for the President's investment proposals and other Key items in the request that the Committee has reduced.

  • Infoshare. The Administration has requested $90 million for Infoshare, approximately $61 million over the projected FY 1994 program level, infoshare is the proposed computer system that is a key part of the Department's streamlining plan to improve delivery of services to farm and rural communities while reducing Federal employment. The Committee has recommended no additional funds for Infoshare and, instead, has proposed that infoshare be funded through other appropriations of the Department and transfers from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC). CCC-funds may legally be used only to cover the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation service share of Infoshare. Therefore, the balance of the funding would have to come from other salaries and expenses appropriations of the Department, which have not been provided sufficient funds for such a purpose.

  • Export Enhancement Program (EEP). The Committee has proposed to reduce EEP funding by $150 million. This unilateral, up-front reduction in subsidies for U.S. farm exports, before concomitant reductions in subsidies by other countries under the Uruguay Round Agreement, would hamper U.S. exports, reduce potential savings available to pay for legislation implementing the Agreement, and cause increases in ccc outlays for deficiency payments.

  • National Research initiative (NRI). The committee has reduced NRI competitive grants $3 million below the FY 1994 level. The NRI supports basic research addressing the highest priority agricultural and environmental research issues, including food safety, water quality, alternative pest control strategies, biodiversity, and ecosystem management. The grants are awarded competitively based on merit after a vigorous peer-review.

  • Food Donations Program. The Committee has provided funding for a cash grant program for nutrition assistance in Samoa. The Administration appreciates the Committee's funding of the request for this program in Samoa.

  • Child Nutrition and Special Milk Programs. The committee has deleted a large number of program management provisions that have been carried in the appropriations act for many years. While these provisions are expected to be included in the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Bill, the Administration believes that they should be retained in the appropriations bill until an authorization bill containing these provisions is enacted.

  • Wetlands Reserve Program. The Committee has reduced the acres funded under the WRP from 300,000 acres to 100,000 acres. The WRP is an integral part of the Administration's Wetlands initiative, which is designed to achieve the Wetlands restoration goals established in the August 1993 wetlands Policy Statement.

William J. Clinton, Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 4554 - Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, FY 1995 Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/329897

Simple Search of Our Archives