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FDA Budget Request 'Falls Short'

Grocers want stepped-up government inspections of food

February 7, 2008

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When the Bush Administration unveiled its proposed budget this week, consumer groups hoping to see a major boost in funding for federal food inspection programs were disappointed.

The spending blueprint would bump the FDA's food safety budget up 6.8 percent to $662 million.

Consumer groups don't think that's nearly enough, and neither, apparently, does the food industry.

"The President's proposal to increase FDA food-related spending by $32 million does little more than cover the cost of inflation and falls short of what is ultimately needed to make certain FDA has the tools it needs to get the job done," said Cal Dooley, President and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Dooley says the food industry has made a number of its own investments in food safety to try to meet the challenges of today's evolving global market. Now, he says, the government has to do its part.

The FDA, which has responsibility for inspecting $1.5 trillion of goods, has been under intense pressure for an increasing number of food safety recalls, that culminated last year in high profile recalls of products ranging salmonella-tainted U.S.-made peanut butter to contaminated pet-food ingredients from China.

In December Dooley and other industry representatives joined with a coalition of consumer groups to call for massive spending increases on the FDA's food safety programs, something the agencies own science board says is needed.

House Democrats say they will act on the Science Board's recommendations and give the agency more money than it has asked for.

Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, (D-CA and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) have written to the FDA's science advisory board subcommittee on science and technology and asked for a budget figure more in line with needs.

"We are deeply concerned that the budget submitted by the president is grossly inadequate to meet the many challenges at FDA as identified by the Science Board," they wrote. "It barely covers the cost of inflation and continues the trend of the inadequate budgets of previous years that have led to the current crisis at the agency."

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