A group of Senators recently introduced legislation to increase annual funding for USDA International Marketing Programs, the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development Program (FMD).
U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) President and CEO Dan Halstrom says while MAP and FMD have received steady funding from Congress and the programs have strong, bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, MAP funding has remained static since 2006 and FMD funding has not been increased since 2002.
As detailed in a bill summary from the Coalition to Promote U.S. Agricultural Exports, the proposed bill would double mandatory funding for MAP from $200 million to $400 million annually and would double mandatory FMD funding from $34.5 million annually to $69 million annually.