House bill challenges USDA livestock tracking plan
May 23, 2006
KNEB.com (Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Dakota)
Reuters
Washington -- A livestock tracking program being developed as part of the U.S. fight against mad cow disease could lose funding next year under a bill facing a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Agriculture Department would lose $33.1 million funding for fiscal 2007 the program unless it produces a written version of its plan, for public comment, according to the $93.6 billion agricultural funding bill that the House was scheduled to vote on late on Tuesday.
Following discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow in late 2003, the administration pledged to hasten creation of the tracking system for food animals. The goal is to help authorities find the home farm and herdmates of suspect animals within 48 hours of the outbreak of livestock disease.
Canada and Australia -- two major U.S. competitors in the beef export market -- already have cattle ID programs.
While some lawmakers complain USDA is taking too long with its target of full implementation by early 2009, Texas Republican Ron Paul said the tracking system would violate property rights and aid giant agribusinesses by driving up the costs for their smaller competitors.
Paul proposed cutting off funding altogether to "a bureaucratic boondoggle we don't need." A bipartisan array of Appropriations and Agriculture committee leaders opposed the plan but Paul insisted on a vote before the House completed work on the overall bill.
Georgia Republican Jack Kingston said USDA could "weed out nonessential animals" from the program once it heard from the public.
The tracking system would cost $100 million a year, split between government and industry, according to estimates. The plan calls for giving "premises" ID numbers to ranches, auction houses and other places where livestock congregates, ID numbers to livestock and reports about their movement.
In the past year or so, USDA has decided to rely on private databases to compile the information, rather than use government computers. It also plans to make the program voluntary, although it might mandate participation.
During debate on the bill, the House discussed USDA's plans to scale back testing of cattle for mad cow disease. Ohio Democrat Dennis Kucinich proposed adding $89 million to keep testing at its elevated level but withdrew the amendment in the face of strong opposition.
Lawmakers also deleted three items added at the committee level. They would have allowed the Food and Drug Administration to order drugmakers to conduct post-marketing safety studies, extended a dairy subsidy for one month, and extended the payment of peanut storage fees to farmers for one year.
