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Jul 09, 2015
The House Appropriations Committee passed its FY 2016 agriculture appropriations bill on Wednesday, providing for full-funding ($34.5 million) of the Foreign Market Development Program (FMD) and the Market Access Program (MAP) at ($200 million).
The FMD program helps to develop, maintain and expand long-term export markets for U.S. agricultural products. Soybean farmers benefit from the FMD program because it aids in building and expanding foreign market share for American soybeans, which represent the nation’s leading agricultural export.
The MAP program is in its 30th year and has proven itself to be a successful partnership between the federal government and private industry. MAP helps us to promote our products overseas through promotions, market research and trade servicing.
Both MAP and FMD are cost share programs, and require investment and partnership from farmers. In short, we have skin in the game, and as partners, we’ve helped to build an additional $6.1 billion in farm exports since 2002, and increased cash receipts on American farms by $4.4 billion.
At this time there are no indications when the bill will go before the full House. The Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee is expected to markup its FY ‘16 agriculture appropriations bill next Tuesday, July 14.
