House approves $100.3 billion ag spending bill, delays origin rule

House approves $100.3 billion ag spending bill, delays origin rule    The U.S. House of Representatives approved a funding bill Thursday that would provide $100.3 billion for the nation’s agricultural programs in fiscal 2006.
   The comprehensive bill, which passed the House by a 408-18 vote, includes $829 million, or a 2 percent increase, for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Included in the amount is $17 million for the agency’s bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or “mad cow,” surveillance program in the United States.
   The bill includes an additional $29.5 million for the Food and Drug Administration to carry out BSE prevention programs and $43 million for USDA’s Agricultural Research Service to study the brain-wasting disease.
   The bill provides $23 million to APHIS to control avian influenza and find ways to eliminate the disease.
   If passed, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service would receive $837 million. Overseas aid programs would receive $1.4 billion, which is 5.5 percent less than the fiscal 2005 budget but 18 percent more than the Bush administration’s request.
   In addition, an amendment was included in the bill to delay the implementation of the mandatory country-of-origin labeling rule for meats, vegetables and fruits for another year. The rule, which Congress passed the controversial measure in 2002, was supposed to take effect in 2004. Congress delayed the regulation’s implementation last year.
   The fiscal 2006 agricultural spending bill now goes to the Senate for action.