David Kruse in his Commstock report sums up the situation quite well:
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The Bush administration has been taking a lot of criticism for incompetence, but there is no greater incompetence or outright sabotaging of government responsibility than in GIPSA. Major packers own the USDA, and they own key centers of power in the U.S. House. U.S. Senators know that. USDA has zero credibility. Any study done by USDA or GIPSA is a waste of taxpayer time and money. They only way to fix USDA is to rhetorically shoot them all and start over. The agency has been totally compromised. That's not going to happen. This will all eventually blow over and the "industry" control of USDA will come through unscathed by this. They won't let a Theodore Roosevelt near USDA. At this point, that's what it would take to change the culture at the USDA.