Vilsack says Meat Inspector Furloughs will Happen

[Anonymous]

Vilsack: Meat Inspector Furloughs Will Happen

Northern Ag Network posted on March 06, 2013 08:29 :: 72 Views




A congressional hearing Tuesday promised to discuss the state of the rural economy, but the vast majority of the hearing was about the state of the sequester.



According to DTN, Members of the House Agriculture Committee highlighted their problems with the way USDA would implement budget cuts. In particular, congressmen wanted assurances from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on the one key news item that has been picked up left and right by the national media. They wanted to know that sequester cuts would not disrupt the safety or markets of the meatpacking industry through furloughing meat inspectors.



While Haylie Shipp was in Kissimmee, Florida last week for the 2013 Commodity Classic, Secretary Vilsack held a press conference with the roughly 30 members of the ag media at the show after he spoke to over 6,000 attendees at the general session.



This was the explanation he gave about meat inspector furloughs.
http://www.northernag.net/AGNews/tabid/171/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/7822/Vilsack-Meat-Inspector-Furloughs-Will-Happen.aspx


Vilsack added that the law limits the number of furloughs they can give to any one person to 22 days. So, he says that you could furlough everybody else other than inspectors for 22 days and you'd still have to furlough inspectors to meet the cuts. He also added that with inspectors working and those other furloughed, that the inspectors wouldn't be able to do their jobs.



As of Friday, Vilsack said that notice letters for those furloughs would start going out this week.

 

[Mike]

Scare tactic. :roll:

There are plenty of places elsewhere to cut. This one has a big fear factor.

Falls right in line with the many "Greenie" contributors to this admin.

 

[Bullhauler]

There is no reason that the packers can't pay the inspectors themselves. They already have to pay for the graders. They could knock the bids down on fats a buck a hundred and easily come up with enough cash to pay them. Instead the price of fats goes down every time the talk of furloughs comes up. I bet the short bought packers want a forced shut-down to build up supplies and knock down the price of cattle while raising the price of boxed beef.

 

[Mike]

There is no reason that the packers can't pay the inspectors themselves. They already have to pay for the graders. They could knock the bids down on fats a buck a hundred and easily come up with enough cash to pay them. Instead the price of fats goes down every time the talk of furloughs comes up. I bet the short bought packers want a forced shut-down to build up supplies and knock down the price of cattle while raising the price of boxed beef.

Just as long as they have the same, equal, or as much authority.......

In the internal email, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service official Charles Brown said he asked if he could try to spread out the sequester cuts in his region to minimize the impact, and he said he was told not to do anything that would lessen the dire impacts Congress had been warned of.
"We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that 'APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.' So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be," Mr. Brown, in the internal email, said his superiors told him.


Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/5/email-tells-feds-make-sequester-painful-promised/#ixzz2MnPQ5pdj
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[Anonymous]

There is no reason that the packers can't pay the inspectors themselves. They already have to pay for the graders. They could knock the bids down on fats a buck a hundred and easily come up with enough cash to pay them. Instead the price of fats goes down every time the talk of furloughs comes up. I bet the short bought packers want a forced shut-down to build up supplies and knock down the price of cattle while raising the price of boxed beef.

I'm not sure that would pass SCOTUS muster... If I remember right- that is what some of the horse slaughter plants were doing- paying for the cost of their own USDA inspectors-- and somebody took them to court- and the courts ruled they could not do that...(Probably over conflict of interest question)... And that's one of the things that put the nail in the coffin of horse slaughter plants...

 

[jodywy]

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/05/Internal-Government-Email-Make-Sequester-Cuts-As-Painful-As-Possible
An internal government email sent Monday instructed an official with a subdivision of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make sure that sequester-related cuts inflict as much pain as possible to make sure "you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be."



When Charles Brown of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service asked "if there was any latitude" in how officials might allocate sequester cuts to reduce negatively impacting fish inspections, Brown received the following reply:



"We have gone on record with a notification to Congress and whoever else that 'APHIS would eliminate assistance to producers in 24 states in managing wildlife damage to the aquaculture industry, unless they provide funding to cover the costs.' So it is our opinion that however you manage that reduction, you need to make sure you are not contradicting what we said the impact would be."



Lawmakers say the email is further evidence that the Obama Administration is seeking to inflict maximum pain for the minimal $85 billion in cuts.



"This email confirms what many Americans have suspected: The Obama administration is doing everything they can to make sure their worst predictions come true and to maximize the pain of the Sequester cuts for political gain," said Rep. Tim Griffin (R-AK).



The $85 billion in sequester cuts represents just .5% of the national debt.