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Source: PRESS RELEASE, 4/27/12
The Senate Committee on Appropriations today approved the FY 2013 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; and Energy and Water Development Appropriations bills by a vote of 28-1. Both measures will now be reported to the full Senate for its consideration.
Chairman Inouye's opening statement is below:
"Good morning. The Committee is meeting today to consider the recommendations of the Subcommittees on Agriculture and Rural Development, and Energy and Water Development. On Tuesday, the Subcommittees' members approved the Chairmen's recommendations with strong bipartisan support. I want to thank Senators Kohl, Blunt, Feinstein, and Alexander for drafting these two bipartisan measures.
"In many respects the success of our nation's economic recovery is linked to the work of these two subcommittees. We are a nation whose economy both thrives and depends upon our robust food production and the capacity to get our products to market both at home and abroad on our waterways and through our ports. In addition, programs enhancing domestic production of energy and reducing our dependence on foreign sources through innovative research are critical to our economic rebound.
"Like so much of the work of this Committee which goes unnoticed while pundits focus on total spending levels or earmarks, today we will assist our nation's return to economic health by approving these measures. These draft bills have been forwarded to the Committee for its review at funding levels that comply with their respective 302(b) allocations. In addition, I would note that the agriculture bill is $50 million below the amount requested by the Administration.
"While the energy and water bill is above the President's request it is still below amounts approved by the Congress last year for these purposes. I thank both Subcommittees for their hard work in preparing these bills. I now call upon our Vice Chairman, Senator Cochran, for his remarks and to make the requisite motion to report the two bills subject to amendment."
Summaries of the bills approved by the full committee today are below:
Summary: Agriculture (Chairman Kohl)
Summary: FY13 Agriculture Appropriations Bill
Fiscal Year 2012 Discretionary Spending: $19.565 billion*
Fiscal Year 2013 Senate: $20.785 billion
*Does not include $367 million in disaster funding
Overall discretionary spending for the Agriculture Subcommittee for fiscal year 2013 totals $20.785 billion.
In making funding decisions for fiscal year 2013, programs directly related to public health and safety and domestic and international nutrition assistance programs were prioritized.
Summaries of funding decisions are below:
Food and Drug Administration: The fiscal year 2013 bill provides $2.524 billion for the Food and Drug Administration. Included in this amount is an increase of $12.5 million for implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act. This funding level takes into consideration the federal government's responsibilities to protect public health and safety, especially in the areas of food, drugs, medical devices and biologics. The bill does not provide funds for several proposed user fees that have yet to be authorized.
Food Safety and Inspection Service: The fiscal year 2013 bill provides $1.001 billion for the Food Safety and Inspection Service. This includes an increase above the budget request for Federal inspection activities and the full funding requested in the budget for State and international inspection activities.
Domestic Nutrition: The fiscal year 2013 bill provides $7.041 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). This level will fully fund participation in the program. This level also provides $60 million for breastfeeding peer counselors, $14 million for infrastructure, and $30 million for management information systems. For other domestic nutrition programs, the fiscal year 2013 bill provides $397 million. This includes $187 million for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which fully funds participation.
Foreign Food Assistance: The fiscal year 2013 bill provides $1.466 billion for PL 480 Title II, the same level as fiscal year 2012 and $66 million more than the budget request. The McGovern-Dole Program, which provides school meals to the world?s poorest children, is funded at $184 million.
Research: The fiscal year 2013 bill provides $1.239 billion for the National Institute on Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and $1.101 billion for the Agricultural Research Service. Specifically within NIFA, the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative is funded at $298 million, the Hatch Act is funded at $236 million, the McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry program is funded at $33 million, and Smith-Lever Sections 3(b) and 3(c) is funded at $294 million.
Rural Development: The fiscal year 2013 bill provides $2.276 billion in budget authority for Rural Development, which effectively maintains loans and grants essential to small and remote rural communities. The single family housing loan level is steady at $900 million, the water and waste water loan and grant program exceeds $1.5 billion, and $2 billion in loans is provided for essential community facilities.
Farm Service Agency: The fiscal year 2013 bill provides $411 million for farm loan programs. The bill provides $1.208 billion for salaries and expenses. The bill also provides full funding to support the agencies' information technology requirements.
Conservation. The fiscal year 2013 bill provides $828 million for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The bill does not include funding for the Watershed Rehabilitation Program.
Summary: Energy and Water (Chairman Feinstein)
Summary: FY13 Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill
Feinstein applauds subcommittee approval of bill that invests in critical water infrastructure, advances clean energy technologies, secures nuclear material worldwide, and makes the nuclear weapons stockpile safer
The U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development today approved fiscal year 2013 funding legislation that totals $33.361 billion, which is $373 million below the fiscal year 2012 enacted level. The bill funds the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Energy (DOE), and the Bureau of Reclamation, which provide critical investments in water infrastructure, clean and alternative energy sources, and national security activities related to nuclear weapons modernization and preventing nuclear terrorism.
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Chairman of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, issued the following statement:
"This bill makes responsible investments in critical water infrastructure projects, clean energy technologies and nonproliferation and nuclear weapons programs. It allows the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation to fulfill their public safety responsibilities around the country while safeguarding and modernizing our nuclear weapon stockpile. The bill adds a limited provision to begin addressing our lack of policy for long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, providing the Department of Energy with the authority to initiate a pilot program for a consolidated storage facility."
Highlights of the fiscal year 2013 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill:
Department of Energy (DOE)-The bill provides $27.128 billion for DOE, which is $1.380 billion above fiscal year 2012. The subcommittee's priority is to advance clean energy technologies and invest in research that will spur future economic growth.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E)-The bill provides $312 million, which is $37 million above fiscal year 2012, to accelerate commercialization of future energy technologies that can reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil and tackle carbon emissions.
Office of Science-The bill provides $4.909 billion, which is $35 million above fiscal year 2012, for basic research. The highest priorities are materials and biological research to focus on breakthroughs in energy applications and computing to develop the next-generation high performance systems.
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy-The bill provides $1.98 billion, which is $160 million more than fiscal year 2012, to advance solar, biomass, and vehicle technologies.
Electricity and Energy Reliability-The bill provides $143 million, which is $4 million more than fiscal year 2012, to support energy integration into the electric transmission grid. The bill fully funds a new Electricity Systems Hub to accelerate efforts to modernize the electric transmission and distribution systems.
Nuclear Energy-The bill provides $793 million, which is $31 million above fiscal year 2012 for nuclear energy. The bill fully funds the small modular reactors program to support design certification and licensing and begins to implement the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission to address safe long-term storage of commercial spent nuclear fuel and defense high level waste.
· The National Nuclear Security Administration-The bill provides $11.511 billion, which is $511 million above fiscal year 2012, for national security activities. The bill provides funding to accelerate efforts to secure all vulnerable nuclear materials by December 2013 and to modernize the nuclear weapons stockpile, including:
· $7.577 billion, which is $363 million above fiscal year 2012, for Weapons Activities to extend the life of three nuclear weapons systems, upgrade aging infrastructure, and invest in science, technology, and engineering activities,
· $2.459 billion, which is $163 million above fiscal year 2012, for Nuclear Nonproliferation to meet the four year goal to secure vulnerable nuclear materials and accelerate the conversion of reactors that still use weapons-grade uranium,
· $1.089 billion, which is $9 million above fiscal year 2012, for Naval Reactors to continue research and development of a new reactor for the Ohio-class submarine, and
· up to $150 million across the agency's accounts to fund a research, development, and demonstration project for domestic enrichment technologies.
Environmental Cleanup-The bill provides $5.7 billion, which is $3 million below fiscal year 2012, to remediate sites contaminated by defense and civilian activities. This includes $5.064 billion for Defense Environmental Cleanup to safely cleanup sites contaminated by previous nuclear weapons production.
Army Corps of Engineers-The bill provides $5.007 billion, which is $276 million above the President?s budget request and $5 million above fiscal year 2012, including:
$2.404 billion, which is $8 million below fiscal year 2012, for Operations and Maintenance, $1.7 billion, which is $6 million above fiscal year 2012, for Construction, $253 million, which is $1 million above fiscal year 2012, for the Mississippi River and Tributaries, $199 million, which is $6 million more than fiscal year 2012, for the Regulatory Program, and $125 million, the same as fiscal year 2012, for General
Investigations.Department of the Interior-The bill provides $1.049 billion, which is $15 million above the President's budget request and $27 million below fiscal year 2012, including the following highlights for the Bureau of Reclamation:
· $892 million, which is $3 million below fiscal year 2012, for Water and Related Resources,
· $40 million, which is $13 million below fiscal year 2012, for the Central Valley Project Restoration Fund, and
· $36 million, which is $4 million below fiscal year 2012, for the California Bay-Delta Restoration
Independent Agencies-The bill provides $250 million, which is $2 million below fiscal year 2012.
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