Hot on the heels of a USDA Inspector General’s report that highlights the failings of privatizing pork inspection, the House yesterday approved an amendment to the Farm Bill that pressures USDA to institute the same type of system in the poultry slaughter industry. The poultry rule, which we’ve written about in this space before, is not yet in final form, but the poultry industry and its supporters are pushing it in that direction. The Inspector General’s report adds to the growing list of reasons why the USDA should scrap the proposed poultry rule and come up with a better way to modernize food safety inspection programs.
The USDA Inspector General reviewed a 15 year-old pilot program in which swine slaughter facilities were granted waivers from current regulations, plant employees were given the responsibility of certain inspection tasks, USDA inspectors were moved off of the slaughter lines, and the line speeds were allowed to increase. Dubbed the HACCP-based Inspection Models Project (HIMP), the program is virtually identical to the pilot HIMP project that was more recently introduced in the poultry slaughter industry. The Inspector General’s review of the swine HIMP revealed that 3 of the 10 plants cited with the most NRs noncompliance records from FYs 2008 to 2011 were HIMP plants. In fact, the swine plant with the most NRs during this timeframe was a HIMP plant—with nearly 50 percent more NRs than the plant with the next highest number.
To make matters worse, the report notes that In the 15 years since the program’s inception, FSIS did not critically assess whether the new inspection process had measurably improved food safety at each swine HIMP plant—a key goal of the HIMP program.
To a cynic, it may not be surprising that USDA avoided a thorough review of the HIMP program, given the noncompliance history of the swine plants that were part of the program and the agency’s goal of making HACCP-based inspection systems permanent in swine and poultry slaughter facilities, alike. To its credit, USDA has completed at least a partial review of the poultry slaughter HIMP, although Food & Water Watch has released reports indicating that USDA’s review missed the mark.
The Inspector General’s report is the second independently researched produced document to raise concerns about the poultry slaughter rule in recent weeks. The other, an interim report from NIOSH about worker safety in a South Carolina poultry slaughter facility, provided evidence of high rates of musculoskeletal problems in plant workers. Those serious health problems are likely linked to the ergonomic hazards of quick and repetitive motion, which would only be exacerbated by the increased line speeds allowed under USDA’s proposed rule.
The poultry slaughter rule was on the fast track at one point (OIRA’s 44-day review was inordinately fast). When public interest advocates raised significant concerns about food safety and threats to workers during the notice-and-comment process, it slowed down. Congressional pressure to speed it back up is misplaced, especially in light of the Inspector General and NIOSH reports.
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Matt Shudtz | June 20, 2013
Hot on the heels of a USDA Inspector General’s report that highlights the failings of privatizing pork inspection, the House yesterday approved an amendment to the Farm Bill that pressures USDA to institute the same type of system in the poultry slaughter industry. The poultry rule, which we’ve written about in this space before, is […]
Christine Klein | June 19, 2013
It’s been more than 30 years since the U.S. Supreme Court declared that water is an article of commerce and that Nebraska’s attempts to prevent the export of “its” groundwater to neighboring Colorado violated the dormant Commerce Clause.1 The high Court did not return directly to the issue until last week’s ruling in Tarrant Regional […]
Rena Steinzor | June 18, 2013
Later in this space, we plan to discuss the many and varied failings of a proposal in the Senate to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act. Unfortunately, the proposal is the joint work product of conservative Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) and liberal Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), who died two weeks ago and therefore won’t have […]
Sandra Zellmer | June 14, 2013
The 2013 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), as adopted by the Senate on May 13, S.601, would authorize $12 billion in federal spending on flood protection, dam and levee projects, and port improvements. A new version of WRDA is passed every few years, and it is the primary vehicle for authorizing U.S. Army Corps of […]
James Goodwin | June 13, 2013
Yesterday’s confirmation hearing for Dr. Howard Shelanski—President Barack Obama’s nominee to serve as the next “Regulatory Czar,” or Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)—may have been the “most important hearing in Washington this week,” but it did not produce much in the way of bombshells or drama. Rather, it […]
Lisa Heinzerling | June 11, 2013
The Obama Administration’s announcement that it will comply with a district court’s order that it make emergency contraceptives available to all women and girls without a prescription comes as a welcome development in a long-running administrative-law fiasco. But the Administration’s specific suggestions as to how it will set things right, set forth in letters sent yesterday […]
Lisa Heinzerling | June 11, 2013
Why does the White House take so long to review rules from the regulatory agencies? As I have documented elsewhere, many rules have been stuck at the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for years. Some of these remain there to this day. What is the White House doing for the months […]
Sidney A. Shapiro | June 11, 2013
The confirmation hearing for Howard Shelanski, President Obama’s pick to serve as the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is set to take place Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. If confirmed, Shelanski would become the Administration’s new “Regulatory Czar,” a description that indicates the […]
Erin Kesler | June 10, 2013
Three years later, it was time for a new episode. Back in 2010, Congress listened to some climate-denial rants, counted votes, and decided to do absolutely nothing about climate change; this year on Capitol Hill, the magic continues. Also in 2010, the Obama administration released an estimate of “the social cost of carbon”` (SCC) […]