Today, Rep. Henry Cuellar announced that he has secured priority grant consideration in the House version of H.R. 3161, the FY 2008 Agriculture Appropriations Bill, for a Frio County Community Youth Center.

This consideration will give Frio County an advantage when it applies for funds to build a Community Youth Center. The center will be used to educate the area’s youth in agriculture related topics. Financial assistance would come from grants and/or loans made available through Rural Development programs within the Department of Agriculture.

“I strongly believe that we should provide our youth with every opportunity available, and this priority grant status does exactly that. It gives the youth of Frio County an opportunity to learn about agriculture,” said Congressman Cuellar.

The FY 2008 Agriculture Appropriations Bill invests a total of $91.5 billion and more than $990 million over the President’s request. Some of the key provisions of the bill include:

Food Aid, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Other Provisions

• Food Stamps: The measure provides funding for low-income families to purchase food.
• Child Nutrition Programs: Includes funding for various child nutrition programs that provide healthy foods to students in pre-school, elementary, and secondary schools.
• Women, Infants and Children (WIC): This measure provides assistance to children up to five years of age, and to pregnant, postpartum, and breast-feeding women who are nutritionally at-risk because of inadequate nutrition and income.
• Food Safety: The measure requires the FDA to develop a performance plan that establishes measurable benchmarks for improvements in the performance of its food safety mission. The plan would comprehensively overhaul FDA’s food safety operations, covering both domestic and imported foods.
• Rural Housing and Development: Under this measure, the Agriculture Department will administer loan and grant programs targeted to underserved, impoverished, or economically declining rural areas. The programs included in this measure provide assistance for single and multifamily housing, community facilities and infrastructure and business development. 

Agriculture and Conservation Programs

• Agriculture Loans: This measure provides funding for a number of loans to farmers, including farm-operating, farm-ownership and American Indian tribal-land acquisitions.
• Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS): Includes funding for APHIS to conduct inspections and quarantine activities to protect animals and plants from diseases and pests.
• Conservation Programs: Provides funding for conservation programs that assist private landowners in reducing erosion, improve soil and water quantity and quality, improve and conserve wetlands, and enhance fish and wildlife habitat.
• Meat Labeling: The bill includes funding to implement country-of-origin meat labeling that indicates if it was U.S.-raised and slaughtered, was of foreign origin, or if it contains meat from more than one country.

“Farming and ranching have always been extremely important for the 28th Congressional District of Texas, and with this bill, we will continue moving forward with the many initiatives that make this area a thriving hub for agriculture growth,” said Congressman Cuellar.

The bill will now go to the Senate for approval.

Congressman Henry Cuellar is a member of the House Homeland Security, Small Business, and Agriculture Committees in the 110th Congress; accessibility to constituents, education, health care, economic development and national security are his priorities. Congressman Cuellar is also a Senior Whip.
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