Pete Domenici: “I am today offering an amendment that will provide the necessary flexibility to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to…”

“I am today offering an amendment that will provide the necessary flexibility to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to carry out the Commodity Supplemental Food Program [CSFP]. The amendment is very simple. It allows the Food and Nutrition Service of USDA to use a portion of available carryover funding for administrative expenses. The administration will then have sufficient funds to provide this important nutrition assistance to as many people as possible. This is not a new issue to the Senate. This same language was enacted as part of the 1995 Second Supplemental Appropriations and Rescissions Act at my request. The amendment was needed to correct an inadvertent effect of congressional action on the CSFP program in the 1994 Agriculture and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. When Congress was considering the Agriculture appropriations bill, the Appropriations Committee learned that the program had $25 million in funding that could be carried over into 1995. The committee decided to reduce the overall CSFP program by $10 million due to the carryover funding. However, while the carryover funds were available to purchase food commodities for distribution, the reduction in overall program funding limited administrative expenses by law to an amount insufficient to allow them to be used.”