House USDA Funding Bill Includes COOL Delay, Trusted Importer Program; No New User Fees
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s FY 2014 funding bill in the House includes recommendations to delay a mandatory country-of-origin labeling rule and create a trusted importer program, but does not include the USDA’s proposed food importer fee. The House Appropriations Committee marked up the bill June 13. Read the complete draft bill (here).
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The House bill does not include any user fees for food facility registration, food import, medical products reinspection, international courier, cosmetics, or food contact notification. In the Obama administration’s 2014 budget proposal, USDA said the proposed food importer fee would enhance both food safety and imports (see 13041118). In its report on the bill, the Committee said it was concerned about the Food and Drug Administration’s large unobligated user fee balances: Congress did allow for some exceptions to using the fees, but “it could not have been anticipated that FDA would be carrying in excess of $1,000,000,000 in unobligated user fees halfway into any fiscal year,” the report said. The House bill directs FDA to submit monthly reports, starting Nov. 1, on user fees collected for each user fee program included in the appropriations bill. Read the Committee report (here).
Other provisions in the bill include:
- A recommendation to delay implementation and enforcement of the May 24 final rule on mandatory COOL labeling. The rule became effective May 23 (see 13052317), drew sharp criticism from Canada and Mexico. According to USDA estimates, it will cost anywhere from $53.1 million to $192.1 million for industry to abide by the rule, the Committee report said. “If the final rule does not produce a resolution, ongoing negotiations between the three countries will only create increased costs and indecision in how the firms meet regulatory requirements,” the report said. It recommended delaying the final rule’s implementation date until the World Trade Organization completes all decisions related to the COOL case.
- A recommendation for the FDA to create a pilot project to expedite imports for importers with strong safety records, modeled off CBP’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and Importer Self-Assessment Programs. The program should craft trade facilitation methods for importers that provide accurate, reliable data, have a compliant history and import low-risk cargo. The bill directs FDA to report to Congress on the status of this pilot project by Dec. 1.
- Similarly, the bill recommends that USDA and the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service work with CBP to ensure CBP employees earn Cargo Release Authority certification for non-reportable species and groups of organisms listed in the Cargo Release Plan. “Such coordination will allow CBP officials to release cargo where CBP may find very distinctive organisms not of agricultural significance,” while letting APHIS officials make release decisions when the products pose a security or health risk, the report said.