Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration (112th Congress)

Thank you, Chairman Rogers for yielding.

We have before us today the fiscal year 2013 appropriations bill and report for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies as passed by the Subcommittee on June 6th.

I want to begin by thanking Ranking Member Farr for all of his work, and the bipartisan spirit with which we bring the FY 2013 Agriculture appropriations bill to the full committee today. I also want to acknowledge all subcommittee members for their work this year through the hearings, and the subcommittee markup. Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Dicks have worked to get our bills through the Committee and to the floor, and I want to thank them for their efforts as well.

I think Chairman Kingston and his Subcommittee did a great job with their $19.4 billion 302(b) allocation in this Agriculture Appropriations bill. They cut spending wherever possible – saving $365 million from last year and more than $1.7 billion from what the President would have liked to spend.

However, while this bill brings down discretionary spending – what we control as appropriators – mandatory spending continues on autopilot. While it's important to help those in greatest need – children who rely on nutrition programs for their health, and the millions of Americans who depend on SNAP for example – there has to be a realization that this rapid spending can't continue when our debts are so high. Something must be done across all areas of mandatory government spending before we automatically spend ourselves into catastrophe.

We have before us today the Chairman's mark for the fiscal year 2013 appropriations bill and report for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies.

Our discretionary 302(b) allocation in budget authority is $19.405 billion, a decrease of $365 million 1.85 percent below the fiscal year 2012 funding level, and a decrease of $1.7 billion below the President's request. Within this total, is a security allocation of $1.33 billion for international food assistance programs. Mandatory spending in the bill totals $121.3 billion, an increase of $4.4 billion above the fiscal year 2012 level, and a decrease of $2 billion below the request.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding.

We have before us today the Fiscal Year 2013 appropriations bill for Agriculture, Rural Development, the FDA and Related Agencies, which is funded at the discretionary 302(b) allocation of $19.405 billion. This is a 1.85 percent decrease compared to the fiscal year 2012 enacted level. I would like to thank Chairman Kingston, Ranking Member Farr and staff on both sides for their bipartisan efforts to prepare for this markup today, as well as my good friend from Washington, Mr. Dicks, for his role in getting this bill to the subcommittee. I look forward to continuing the regular order under which we have moved our appropriations bills this year.