USDA Provides Details on Food Safety Inspector Furloughs
The USDA has provided more details on the possible furlough of Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) inspectors, which the agency states will occur due to sequestration cuts. During a House Agriculture Committee hearing, USDA Undersecretary of Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen said that the proposed plan includes 11 furlough days, no more than one day a week and no more than two days per pay period, scheduled from July to September. Furloughs will be required of all 9,212 FSIS employees, including 8,136 meat inspectors and lab technicians.
According to Hagen, FSIS will likely take a total cut of $52.8 million, or 5% of its budget.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall said this is the most detailed information provided to date on the furloughs, which were first announced in February by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
“Even though we now have more information on how these furloughs will be carried out, markets continue to be affected because these actions remain a possibility,” said Woodall. “Cattlemen and women are left wondering how to prepare for these cuts to food safety inspections and how this will affect their operations. Ultimately, we hope that furloughs of inspectors are taken off the table by USDA, so as to not disrupt production.”
Earlier this week, Vilsack responded to concerns raised by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and eight other Republican senators in a letter sent in February with questions about the furloughs. The letter asked Vilsack to describe what USDA is doing to reduce travel, conference and operating expenses, provide a legal reason as to why USDA can suspend food safety inspections though the process is mandated by the Federal Meat Inspection Act and also asked Vilsack to provide a plan should the furlough of food safety inspectors take effect later this year.
In a statement issued by Grassley’s office, the senator expressed concern over USDA’s response, stating that the agency “is not doing everything possible to avoid something as drastic as furloughing meat and poultry product inspectors. These furloughs mean lost production for more than just the meat and poultry product inspectors, but employees up and down the food chain. The response I received today was unsatisfactory and left me with additional questions.”
Grassley said in his statement he plans to send a follow-up letter to the agency.
— News release provided by NCBA.
