Food Trade Groups Urge Congress to Reject Proposed FSMA Fees

Several dozen trade associations representing the interests of food and beverage producers, processors, shippers, and retailers have submitted their concerns about the Obama administration’s proposed 2014 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) budget, which includes $59 million in food facility registration and inspection fees to fund FDA activities under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). In their April 17, 2013, letter to the chair and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, the industry groups call for FDA to submit requests for FSMA implementation funding through the appropriations process, “rather than seeking authorization of new regulatory taxes, which Congress has repeatedly rejected.”