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Food Safety: Bush Requests More than $115 Million for FDA Bioterrorism-Related Food Programs U.S. President George W. Bush has requested more than $115 million for bioterrorism-related food safety programs in his fiscal 2004 budget, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced today (see GSN, Feb. 3). The $116.8 million request is an increase of almost 20 percent from fiscal 2003 funding levels of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s bioterrorism food initiatives, according to a Health and Human Services Press release. 1 “We are building on the largest investment in our public health infrastructure in history by making America healthier, safer and better prepared,” Thompson said in the press release. “We are ensuring that our food supply is safe by making it easier for state, local and federal authorities to exchange information about pathogens in food, and we will be able to improve food monitoring and inspections throughout America,” he added. More than $20 million in new funding would go toward implementing the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. The request allots $5 million toward increasing laboratory preparedness by expanding the Electronic Laboratory Exchange Network, which allows facilities to share information on food pathogens. Another $5 million would go to state contracts and grants to improve food monitoring and inspections efforts. The request also allocates more than $10 million to implement a registration system for U.S. and foreign food production facilities and a prior notice system for food imports (see GSN, Jan. 31; U.S. Health and Human Services Department release, Feb. 4).
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