Senate Votes to Limit Funds for Food Promotion
A day after voting to uphold a program giving big food companies federal money to advertise U.S. farm goods overseas, the Senate voted Wednesday to cut more than one-third of its money and to keep big business from benefiting from the program.
The measure would limit the money to agricultural cooperatives and small businesses and would forbid any foreign companies to use the funds.
“Here is a chance to make the program defensible,” said Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.), who co-sponsored the changes with Sen. Richard H. Bryan (D-Nev.). The two have tried unsuccessfully to kill the program.
By a vote of 62 to 36, the Senate agreed to trim $40 million from the controversial Market Promotion Program, leaving $70 million for the program that once received $200 million a year.
The changes were included in a $63.8-billion spending bill for the Agriculture Department, the Food and Drug Administration and related agencies for fiscal 1996, which begins Oct. 1. The measure passed, 95 to 3.
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