Senate passes Fiscal Year 2010 Agriculture Appropriations bill

News Date August 11, 2009

Last week, the U.S. Senate cleared a $125 billion FY2010 Agriculture Appropriations bill (HR 2997). The legislation, which passed by a vote of 80-17, includes full funding for the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) program. In matching the efforts in the House-passed version of the bill, Congress has moved much closer to maintaining the full funding for these critical programs for the coming fiscal year.

Following the August recess, there are several provisions to be dealt with in conference, including weaker language regarding Chinese poultry imports, an additional $350 million in funding for FSA efforts, which is initially meant for assistance to dairy producers, as well as a reduction in funding for animal identification activities to $7.3 million, which the House completely zeroed out for FY2010. (Contact: David Hickey)