In a unanimous vote, the Senate Committee on Appropriations has approved the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, providing $27.1 billion in discretionary funding, including direct investments in food safety. It also grapples with several Trump Administration restrictions and efforts relevant to FDA, such as the federal hiring freeze and the delay of the Food Traceability Final Rule.

The bill allocates $1.2 billion for USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) to promote the safety and productivity of the U.S. meat and poultry industry by supporting nearly 8,000 frontline inspection personnel for meat, poultry, and egg products at more than 6,800 facilities in the U.S. This includes an additional $15 million for the State Meat and Poultry Inspection and Cooperative Interstate Shipment Programs as requested by the administration.

Additionally, if the bill is enacted, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) would receive $1.9 billion, $1.7 billion, and $1.2 billion, respectively.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also receives funding under the bill. Specifically, $3.6 billion would be given to FDA, with targeted increases for food safety and inspections. This would bring FY 2026 FDA funding levels to $7 billion, including $3.4 billion in user fees, which is similar to the amount of funding FDA received in FY 2025.

Moreover, of the total amount appropriated for FDA’s Human Foods Program and related field activities in the Office of Inspections and Investigations, no less than $116,000,000 shall be used for State and local programs. This provision comes after the feasibility of the Trump Administration’s plans to move all routine food inspection responsibilities to state and local health departments has been questioned, especially in the face of reduced funding.

The act raises specific concerns about certain aspects of FDA’s food safety work, and if enacted, would direct FDA to revise some of its processes. Specifically:

• Expert Panels: Regarding a recent expert panel that was deployed to evaluate scientific matters related to infant formula, the bill says, “the Committee is concerned that [FDA] did not allow public participation or provide for public comments and panelists did not disclose potential conflicts of interest. FDA must follow long-standing practices that ensure processes and decision-making are transparent, unbiased, and grounded in science. The Committee expects that any future engagement with regards to these and other topics will be based on sound science and free from conflicts of interest.”
• Food chemical and color reviews: The bill directs FDA to conduct premarket safety assessments for food chemicals and to prioritize post-market chemical reviews, including a post-market review process for color additives authorized under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act (FD&C Act).
• Foodborne illness outbreak investigations: The bill calls into question FDA’s, in coordination with USDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s), foodborne illness outbreak investigations and communications. “There are concerns that information communicated to the public in the past may have been inaccurate,” the act states. Therefore, the Committee requests that USDA, FDA, and CDC acknowledge that initial hypotheses may need to be updated based on new scientific evidence and final conclusions must be based on robust evidence. These recommendations should also include ways to work with the industry to improve food safety. USDA, FDA, and CDC should collaborate with industry during outbreak investigations to prevent future events.” The bill requests a report from the three agencies on these recommendations within 90 days of the bill’s enactment.
• Hiring freezes: Specifically stating concerns about the Trump Administration’s federal hiring freeze, the bill also seeks to address “the challenges facing recruitment and retention of qualified [scientists, product reviewers, and inspectors] and directs FDA to remove the hiring restrictions in place for these key roles within 30 days of enactment of [the bill].”
• Microplastics testing: The Committee directs FDA’s Human Foods Program to develop a validated testing methodology for detection and analysis of microplastics in human foods.
• Food Traceability Final Rule delay: In light of FDA’s March 2025 decision to delay the compliance date for Section 204(d) of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA 204), also known as the Food Traceability Final Rule, the Committee directs that no funding from the appropriations act or any other act may be used to delay FSMA 204 enforcement beyond July 20, 2028. The bill requests a report from FDA detailing its strategies to support industry implementation and to prepare for enforcement by July 2028.

Other food safety areas to which the bill specifically urges FDA’s continued attention include heavy metals in baby food and foods for children, ensuring a robust infant formula supply, and Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat (RTE) foods.