Agricultural Exports Booming and more

Advocacy at a Glance offers you the bullet point summary of current advocacy issues associated with the goals of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.

• House and Senate Floor Action on Ag/House Appropriations. To the best of our knowledge, neither committee-passed bill has been scheduled for floor time. The general expectation is that both bodies will get to their bill in June, conference in July (or sooner), with final passage before the August recess. Fast scheduling seems to be occurring more this year than in recent years, but there is still potential that timing could change.

• Agricultural Exports Booming. The Department of Agriculture projected that agricultural exports would reach nearly $150 billion this fiscal year, an all-time high. In previous years, much of the increase has related to prices, but this year they project a 31% increase in export volumes. The FDA angle on this (in our view) is that the reputation of the American food supply for quality and safety is a critical, but often unmentioned, part of the ability of exports to grow.