President Donald Trump last week signed a package of appropriations bills into law, ensuring there would be no shutdown of the federal government this fall. As it now stands, the president has signed into law five of the 12 federal spending bills needed to fund the government. The remaining seven appropriations bills are currently being funded by a continuing resolution, a temporary extension that will end on Dec. 7.

One of the bills operating under this continuing resolution is the Agriculture Appropriations bill.

IDFA believes that when Congress replaces the extension with a new Agricultural Appropriations bill, it will include dairy funding priorities, which are $1.5 million dedicated to finding ice cream waste solutions and $3 million for the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Nutrition and Food Labeling for standards of identity. The House version of the bill included language directing the Agricultural Research Service to study ice cream waste solutions, as well as $3 million for FDA standards of identity work. Meanwhile, the Senate designated $1.5 million for ice cream waste solutions in its version of this legislation.

“A conference committee made of senators and representatives has been working for weeks to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, and all indications suggest work has been completed,” said Tony Eberhard, IDFA vice president of legislative affairs. “As long as the Agriculture Appropriations bill is not caught up in unrelated disagreements occurring in several of the other remaining appropriations bills, it could very well pass in in December.”

For more information, contact Eberhard at teberhard@idfa.org.