Funding Secured for FSIS Inspectors

Funding Secured for FSIS Inspectors

I’m KayDee Gilkey with today’s Open Range.

The meat industry is pleased that the sequestration effects to the Food Safety Inspection Services have been avoided with the recent positive move from congress and signed into law by the president.
NCBA Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall says
Woodall: “This was a great victory for all of us in the cattle industry and the beef industry as a whole because we were one of the only industries in all of America that were able to get some money moved around to protect what we deemed was an essential function and that is the daily inspection by FSIS inspectors of the meat lines to make sure that these plants stay open. It took a lot of work from everybody involved and we had some great support from the two sponsors Senator Blunt from Kentucky and Senator Pryor from Arkansas but we go it done. The only problem is that it is only good for the rest of this fiscal year which expires on September 30th.”
Recognizing what ill effect sequestration could have had to food safety, what do cattle producers need to do ensure that this doesn’t happen down the road?
Woodall: “It is really important that cattlemen out there listening to this contact their members of Congress and also contact the Secretary of Agriculture and let them know that USDA has got to revise and review their budget for the fiscal year 2014 to make sure they move around the money they need to in order to protect this very essential function which is the inspection by FSIS inspectors. So the message make sure that you cut wisely but don’t cut the essential functions of USDA.”