This week the House Appropriations Committee will decide whether to leave a provision in the agriculture spending bill that would make it easier for Americans to import cheaper prescription drugs. The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee approved an $83.1 billion draft bill that would bar the FDA from enforcing the current ban on importing drugs. The amendment, sponsored by the subcommittee’s ranking Democrat, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and opposed by Subcommittee Chairman Henry Bonilla (R-Texas), was adopted with the support of three Republicans.

Last year a similar proposal, opposed by both Bonilla and the White House, was added to the fiscal 2004 agriculture appropriations bill, however, it was stripped in conference. On July 25, 2003, the House passed the proposal making prescription drug imports a separate bill. According to CQ, Appropriations Chairman C.W. Bill Young (R-Florida), who supports legalizing prescription drug imports but not in an appropriations bill, this legislation has a good chance of surviving in the bill in full committee. The bill, which would fund agriculture, nutrition, rural development programs and the FDA, is scheduled to be considered on Wednesday and would provide $16.8 billion in discretionary spending. Mandatory programs, including crop subsidies and food stamp and nutrition programs, would receive $66.4 billion. While conservation programs would take a hard hit, a 17% decrease from the 2002 farm law and a 29% decrease from the authorized levels in the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, agencies managing food safety would all receive more money.