President Obama is seeing a 17% increase in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) budge for Fiscal Year 2013. Most of that increase would come from additional industry fees, according to the budge request information issued by the Administration. President Obama is seeking a 17 percent bump for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's budget for Fiscal Year 2013 and nearly all of that increase would come from upping industry fees, according to the budget request released by the administration Monday.

The food industry watched for details on the president's request because the FDA, which oversees 80% of the nation’s food supply, is launching the one-year-old Food Safety Modernization Act, an initiative that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will cost $1.4 billion over five years to implement.

For Fiscal Year 2012, the FDA ultimately received a $50-million increase, mainly to help fund food safety, an incredible move in this tough budgetary environment. Under the Obama budget plan, the FDA's discretionary budget would be essentially frozen at current levels for Fiscal Year 2013, at $2.5 billion.

The plan calls for a $253-million surge for food safety, $220 million of which would come from industry fees. The request also seeks $10 million to improve the FDA's cooperation with and capacity in China.

There’s no word yet about what types of food facilities would pay the fees, or whether the fees will be extended to farms. The details are still to be finalized, according to Patrick McGarey, assistant commissioner for budget at the FDA.

Source: www.foodsafetynews.com