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Sequester Meat Shortages Months Away, Says USDA Secretary
www.wftw.com ^ | 05 Mar 13 | Staff

Posted on 03/05/2013 1:23:53 PM PST by Red Badger

(WASHINGTON) -- The sequester likely won’t cause meat and poultry shortages for a while — thanks, in part, to union negotiations and USDA inspectors’ lack of email access.

Furloughs to Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors at the U.S. Department of Agriculture could force meat and poultry plants to stop production — with no inspectors to approve products, they can’t be sold — but Tuesday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the House Agriculture Committee that those furloughs probably won’t happen until later this year.

“We are looking at a several-month period, if you will, before a furlough will be imposed,” Vilsack said, depending on negotiations with the inspectors’ union.

A drawn-out notification process will prevent the furloughs from happening right away, Vilsack said.

“This week we will send out notices to the union reps that a furlough is possible, and one of the challenges is that not every one of our workers in this particular area has email, so we actually have to hand-deliver a letter or written notification to those employees. That has to be followed up … with oral conferences to take place with any employee who requests an oral confirmation–that will happen at the local level,” Vilsack said. After all employees are notified, Vilsack said, USDA will negotiate with union representatives over how the furloughs will be implemented.

But if furloughs do happen, Vilsack warned their impact could be particularly severe.

That’s because furloughs will be concentrated over just a few months this year. Inspectors will miss 11-12 days each between now and Sept. 30 (end of the fiscal year), Vilsack predicted, and the longer USDA waits, meat and poultry producers could feel a more severe impact over a shorter time frame. USDA has already projected that food-safety will be particularly hard hit by furloughs, as 87 percent of that account’s budget goes to food inspectors and “support” for inspectors.

Republican members of the committee appeared perplexed that Vilsack hadn’t begun the furlough process sooner, spreading them out over more time and lessening their effects. Vilsack replied that he couldn’t start the process until President Obama issued his sequester order on Friday.

“If you have six months left to implement this, you have in essence a 10 percent reduction in your remaining resources. If you have three months, you have a 15 percent reduction,” Vilsack said. “I think we’ll have more than three months, but it won’t be a lot more than three months, and that’s one of the problems.”

In other words, furloughs will begin sometime before July 1, though Vilsack wouldn’t guess at how many days or months beforehand.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: foodsupply; sequester; usda; welfare
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To: Red Badger

The Millenium Ark (standeyo.com) has already alerted the knowing readership, 4 months ago, that there will be an upcoming beef shortage, brought on by the continuing drought.


21 posted on 03/05/2013 3:56:13 PM PST by Terry L Smith
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To: Red Badger

More hysteria and promotions of panic.


22 posted on 03/05/2013 4:25:17 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)
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To: Scram1

If you think that is tough, just try armadillo meat sometime!............


23 posted on 03/06/2013 7:47:10 AM PST by Red Badger (Lincoln freed the slaves. Obama just got them ALL back......................)
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To: Red Badger

just try armadillo meat sometime!.....
= = = = = = = = = = =
You know you are supposed to take it out of the shell don’t you? <: <: <:


24 posted on 03/10/2013 8:27:37 PM PDT by xrmusn (6/98 "It is virtually impossible to clean the pond as long as the pigs are still crapping in it")
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