Statement of Richard Rominger
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
Before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
April 6, 2000
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I am pleased to appear before you today to discuss S. 1988, that closely tracks the Administration's legislative proposal to remove the statutory prohibitions on the interstate shipment of State-inspected meat and poultry products, introduced by Senators Daschle and Hatch last year. In addition to Senators Daschle and Hatch, I would like to thank the ever-increasing bipartisan group of Senators who have cosponsored this legislation, known as The New Markets for State-Inspected Meat Act of 1999. As the former head of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, I am pleased that we have finally come up with a solution that is fair to States, fair to small producers, and fair to consumers.
With me today are Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety Caren A. Wilcox and Associate Administrator for the Food Safety and Inspection Service Margaret O'K. Glavin, who have worked diligently with all stakeholders to resolve the interstate shipment issue.
The bill before us today solves the perennial question of how to level the playing field for the small and very small State-inspected meat and poultry processing plants, allowing them to reach markets across State lines. The bill finds the right balance - providing packers with the access to compete in new markets; ensuring the necessary Federal oversight to guarantee consumers and our trading partners of the integrity of a seamless national inspection system; and maintaining the identity of State inspection programs.
The genesis of this bill was a public meeting the Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) held in June 1997, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at the request of Senator Daschle. The meeting initiated a consensus approach towards achieving interstate shipment for State products. Subsequently, the Agency shared with our National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection a concept paper on interstate shipment. Ultimately, the Committee, composed of consumer, State, and industry representatives, endorsed this carefully balanced concept as a basis for legislation. When Senator Hatch requested a report on recommendations for lifting the ban on interstate shipment last year, I was pleased to forward the Administration's legislative proposal.
The linchpin of this bill is the provision that States will adopt and enforce Federal inspection statutes and regulations. Inspected and passed State products will bear a Federal mark of inspection, making it crystal clear, wherever these products move in commerce, their safety and wholesomeness is assured by the United States Government.
In addition, States will continue to be allowed to use their State mark of inspection. They will also continue to be allowed to impose additional requirements on plants voluntarily opting for State inspection. But, States cannot impose these requirements on or interfere with the free movement of product originating from Federal or another State's plants.
Before State-inspected plants can ship interstate, USDA will first conduct comprehensive reviews of all State programs, and confirm that all recommendations from the reviews have been implemented. Annual comprehensive reviews will continue to verify that States are fully enforcing Federal inspection requirements.
Under the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) inspection system now in place, the nation's food supply is safer than ever. We have seen the overall prevalence of Salmonella in broilers, swine, ground beef, and ground turkey drop, and for some species by as much as 50 percent. To strengthen the seamlessness of the national inspection program, under S. 1988, all Salmonella performance standard samples for products eligible for a Federal mark-of-inspection, whether produced in a Federal or State establishment, will be collected by the Department and analyzed in our laboratories. This will also give consumers confidence in Federal oversight of the system.
The time is ripe for S. 1988 with the final implementation of HACCP in January of this year. The approximately 2,300 State plants have adapted to the HACCP system very successfully, and are producing safe and wholesome product under this new system of inspection. With the carefully planned, in-depth reviews, the confidence will be there, among consumers, industry, the States, and the Department, to remove the inequity and allow State-inspected plants to ship their products interstate under the provisions of this bill.
We have 25 great State partners that have developed programs with the expertise to best provide inspection for their small and very small State plants. These States are illustrated on the chart I brought with me today. USDA wants to strengthen its relationship with the State programs and ensure their viability. In fact, we want to encourage more States to implement their own programs. To this end, the bill calls for raising the Federal reimbursement to up to 60 percent of the cost of operating a State program. Currently, FSIS will reimburse a State for only up to 50 percent of its program's cost. Additionally, since these are voluntary programs on the State's part and a State's resources are not inexhaustible, States should be permitted to limit the size of plants that are eligible for State inspection. This bill allows for that.
The very small plants who produce specialty, niche market products, such as award-winning Kansas beef jerky from Heideman's Smokehouse, sausage from Manley Meats in Indiana, and maple cured product from M&J Jerky in Vermont, are winners with the passage of S. 1988. Interstate shipment will allow these State plants to reach new markets and to engage in new and innovative methods of marketing, such as mail order and e-commerce over the internet. This bill will allow these plants to better compete on a level playing field with plants that are federally inspected.
The consumer is also a big winner here. Consumers would be able to enjoy a greater variety of safe meat and poultry products, like those I mentioned previously. With the current prohibition in place, you or I, here in Washington, cannot enjoy the many specialty products produced under State-inspection. However, once S. 1988 passes and becomes law, not only would every American be able to enjoy this and other State-inspected products, but people from around the world would be able to enjoy these products since they would be eligible for export. And, they will be able to do so with the assurance provided by the USDA mark of inspection.
Small producers will also win. They will have more local plant options for delivering their animals. In some regions, small farmers and ranchers have to transport their animals over long distances.
Even federally inspected plants will benefit because they are often suppliers to small and very small State plants that buy and add value to their products.
The Federal program and the State programs are winners too. Greater coordination between the Federal program and the State programs will ensure the consistent application of policy and enforcement. Importantly, the higher degree of coordination will ensure expertise will flow both ways, maximizing the use of the talents available in a national inspection system.
The interstate shipment debate has gone on long enough. Back in the early 1980s, when Senators Daschle, Dorgan, and Roberts, were Members with Secretary Glickman on the House Committee on Agriculture, then-House Subcommittee Chairman Harkin held hearings on this subject. And, this was a decade after the debate on this issue had begun!
Now the time is ripe. HACCP has been successfully implemented. A consensus has been forged. A balanced bill - addressing concerns of processors, consumers, State regulatory authorities, USDA, and the industry - has been introduced. It is time to pass an interstate shipment bill - this bill.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this morning. I look forward to working with you in passing S. 1988 and moving to a seamless, national food safety system. I and my colleagues would be more than happy to answer any questions you or other Members of the Committee may have.