Biden officials flood the Hill

With help from Helena Bottemiller Evich

QUICK FIX

— Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has a merry-go-round of hearings this week — he will appear before House Ag and both chambers’ Appropriations panels for testimony on President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2024 budget request.

— FDA Commissioner Robert Califf will also testify this week on the president’s budget request. Meanwhile, Frank Yiannas, the former deputy commissioner for food policy and response at the Food and Drug Administration, will answer questions before the House Oversight Committee.

— Adding to the concern over FDA is a new revelation that the agency knew about a positive bacterial test at a Reckitt formula facility months before it publicly announced a recall.

HAPPY MONDAY, March 27. Welcome to Morning Ag. I’m your host, Garrett Downs. Send tips to [email protected] and @_garrettdowns, and follow us at @Morning_Ag.
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Driving the Day

VILSACK ROUNDS THE BASES: Vilsack will testify for three days in a row this week, first on Tuesday before the House Ag Committee, then before both Senate and House appropriations panels on Wednesday and Thursday.

Refresh: Vilsack last appeared before Congress a couple of weeks ago when he testified before the Senate Ag Committee. There, he was questioned repeatedly by Republicans about spending from the Commodity Credit Corporation to fund his Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, and USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan reevaluation.

The TFP reevaluation boosted benefits for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and has been lauded by nutrition advocates. But it comes at a cost — CBO recently found SNAP will be more expensive year-over-year due in part to the TFP reevaluation.

Republicans have been quick to jump on that. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), told reporters last week that enhanced work requirements like those recently proposed in the House could help cut back on the program’s costs.

What to expect: Vilsack will likely be pressed on both issues before the House Ag Committee as it seeks to write the 2023 farm bill, but it’s unlikely he changes his tune from his most recent hearing.

Before the Senate, Vilsack said he stands by the department’s reevaluation of the TFP. He also defended his spending through the CCC for climate uses by saying he was urged to do it by major farm groups, including the traditionally conservative-leaning American Farm Bureau Federation.

Now for Appropriations: Vilsack’s dual appearances before the House and Senate Appropriations committees will be focused on President Joe Biden’s budget proposal for fiscal 2024. His budget called for a 14 percent increase to discretionary programs, which are funded by annual appropriations packages. SNAP is a mandatory program funded by the farm bill, but other crucial programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) are funded on a discretionary basis.

While the president’s budget is more of a wish list than a binding document, it sets the tone for Congress to craft appropriations bills. But there will be increased pressure on budget cuts this year, given the Republican control of the House. Vilsack lauded the budget on release and will likely defend it before the committees.

FDA OVERSIGHT

FDA ON THE HILL: Califf on Wednesday will testify before the House Appropriations Committee on Biden’s fiscal 2024 budget.

While he will be there to testify on the budget, Califf will likely face questions about the FDA’s response to infant formula shortages that continue to roil parents and caregivers seeking to feed their children. He’ll also likely be grilled about the overhaul of the FDA that he is overseeing in response to an external review by the Reagan-Udall Foundation.

But that’s not all: Califf’s budget hearing will likely be overshadowed by another former FDA official’s testimony on Tuesday.

Frank Yiannas, the former deputy commissioner for food policy and response at FDA, will testify before the House Oversight Committee as it looks into the baby formula crisis. Yiannas departed in February and criticized the FDA’s food division.

Details: As MA reported last week, the formula shortages, spurred by a contamination and shutdown of a key Abbott plant in February 2022, spiraled into a political crisis for the administration in the ensuing months. Several recent, smaller recalls over possible Cronobacter sakazakii bacterial contaminations in formula, with more frequency than in the past, have led to concerns among parents about the state and upkeep of formula plants in the country in the wake of the pandemic.
NEW FORMULA CONCERN: As FDA officials are dotting the Hill this week, Helena Bottemiller Evich writes for POLITICO that a recent formula recall wasn’t announced until several months after FDA officials first learned that some products at a major plant had tested positive for bacteria. It could prove another headache for the beleaguered agency as it faces questions from lawmakers this week.

Details: In late February, formula giant Reckitt issued a press release recalling 145,000 cans of Enfamil ProSobee Simply Plant-Based Infant Formula over the “possibility of cross-contamination with Cronobacter sakazakii” — the deadly pathogen that sparked the infant formula crisis last year. Dozens of news outlets covered this as breaking news, recommending parents and caregivers toss the products or return them for a refund.

But FDA inspectors had become aware of the positive test that ultimately sparked this recall in November, an FDA spokesperson confirmed to POLITICO.

Reckitt had found Cronobacter sakazakii in a batch of formula made at its Zeeland, Mich., plant, during internal testing conducted in early September. The batch that tested positive was destroyed, but the FDA later determined that not enough cleaning had been done following the positive test. Two batches of formula made right after the contaminated batch would ultimately be recalled on February 20 — more than five months after the products had been distributed nationally, including in Guam and Puerto Rico.

Deja-vu: The revelation that this recall took months to announce comes more than a year after a massive infant formula recall from Abbott Nutrition, renewing questions about FDA’s oversight of formula and whether enough has changed in the wake of this crisis to prevent another one. There have been four formula recalls over Cronobacter contamination in the past year — more formula recalls than there have been in the last decade combined.

“It’s stunning that it’s almost identical to what happened in 2021,” said Mitzi Baum, CEO of STOP Foodborne Illness, a group that advocates on behalf of victims of outbreaks, referring to the lengthy timeline from positive test to recall. “Lessons have not been learned.”

Row Crops

— Our Annie Snider sat down with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) to talk about the Western drought and the farm bill. Read her Q&A with Bennet, who chairs the Senate Ag Committee’s subpanel on conservation, climate, forestry and natural resources.

— The House Ways and Means Work and Welfare Subcommittee will hold a hearing on “Welfare is Broken: Restoring Work Requirements to Lift Americans Out of Poverty.” It comes as Republicans are hoping to juice up work requirements for SNAP in the farm bill.

— Farmland could soon be encroached on by chip builders in Oregon as the state seeks to attract the semiconductor industry, reports ABC News.

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