TEFAP Alliance Blog

Late February 2003

In This Issue:
• Current Year Funding Finalized
• Bonus Purchase Fund to be Replenished
• Formula Changes Benefit California
• Congressional Subcommittees Named
•
Current Year Funding Finalized
Fiscal year 2003 appropriations for TEFAP were finalized last week when President Bush signed the omnibus appropriations bill, HJR2. The legislation provides $190 million for TEFAP this year — $50 million for storage, processing, and administrative costs and $140 million for food purchases, the same funding levels as in fiscal year 2002.
However, all discretionary programs in the bill were reduced by a 0.65 percent across-the-board cut, paring TEFAP administrative funding back to $49.675 million. The mandated food purchases were unaffected. The legislation contains a provision allowing USDA to convert up to $10 million from food to administration; although the transfer has not been officially approved yet, USDA officials indicated it is likely.

Bonus Purchase Fund to be Replenished
HJR2 also provides $250 million to repay Section 32, the government account earmarked for the purchase of surplus commodities. Late last year, USDA used over $930 million in Section 32 funds for a livestock compensation program to aid ranchers suffering from drought, causing a potential shortfall in funding to buy bonus foods for food distribution and child nutrition programs. However, USDA Secretary Ann Veneman has pledged to provide the same level of commodities as last year, when $280 million in surplus items were allocated to TEFAP over and above the $140 million in mandatory purchases for the program. Although USDA has continued to deliver fiscal year 2002 bonus buys, five months of uncertainty this fiscal year coupled with the siphoning off of funds for drought relief will cause bonus commodities for TEFAP to at least “temporarily dwindle” during the coming months, said USDA staff.

Formula Changes Benefit California
Annual updates to the statutory TEFAP funding formula being implemented this year will benefit California, according to numbers released by USDA this month. Revised unemployment statistics used in the formula and updated poverty data from the 2000 U.S. Census will deliver 13.36 percent of all TEFAP food and funds to California, up from 11.92 percent last year. The formula changes, which will boost administrative funding for California by more than half a million dollars annually, will be implemented over a two-year period to ameliorate large declines for half a dozen states.

Congressional Subcommittees Named
Republican and Democratic Party leaders continued to make committee assignments this month, as the new 108th Congress settled down to business. In the Senate, Illinois Republican Peter Fitzgerald has been named to chair the Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Research, Nutrition, and General Legislation, which has jurisdiction over TEFAP. Patrick Leahy of Vermont will be the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee. Other Subcommittee members are Richard Lugar (R-IN), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Zell Miller (D-GA), and Mark Dayton (D-MN).
In the House, Representative Henry Bonilla (R-TX) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) will continue as chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, which determines annual funding levels. Other Subcommittee members are: James Walsh (R-NY), Jack Kingston (R-GA), George Nethercutt (R-WA), Tom Latham (R-IA), Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), Virgil Goode (I-VA), Ray LaHood (R-IL), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Sam Farr (D-CA), and Allen Boyd (D-FL).
**********
WASHINGTON UPDATE is published periodically for the TEFAP Alliance by Weinberg & Vauthier Consulting, 419 West Broad Street, Suite 204, Falls Church, VA 22046; telephone: 703-532-5700; fax: 703-532-5780; email: zyweinberg@earthlink.net.

Washington Update
Wednesday, February 26, 2003

mvauthier :: Feb.25.2003 :: Washington Update :: No Comments »:: Print This Post

Trackback this post | Feed on Comments to this post