Farming, Saturday, July 27, 1996
House Introduces Legislation To Lift Prohibition On Interstate Shipment Of
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Legislation to waive the archaic
laws which prohibit the interstate
shipment of state-inspected meat
and poultry products was intro
duced in the U.S. House of Rep
resentatives by Texas Congress
man William “Mac” Thomberry
(R). Passage of the legislation
would help create new jobs and
eliminate the unfair market re
strictions that have forced hun
dreds of small processors out of
business.
“I think the report proposal to
reform the nation’s meat inspec
tion system is a wise one,” Thorn
berry said. “But it’s also incom
plete. The industry r, currently
governed by two 25-year old laws.
Both of these laws contain a provi
sion which prohibits state
inspected beef from being sold in
other stales unless it’s subjectlo
inspection from the federal
government”
Thornberry said that foregin
countries have a competitive
advantage over states in getting
their beef sold in America. “What
this means is that Texas beef can
not be sold in Oklahoma unless
it’s inspected by someone from
Washington but beet from
Mexico, Canada, or another coun
try can,” he said
‘This is both unjust and unfair,”
Thomberry said. “If beef from
Mexico is safe to eat in Lawton
(Oklahoma) without federal poul
try inspection, you can bet your
bottom dollar the beef from Texas
will be safe to eat there as well.”
The unfair restriction affects
Meat, Poultry
approximately 3,000 slaughtering
and processing facilities in 26
states that offer stale meat and
poultry inspection programs. The
Federal Meat Inspection Act of
1967 and the Poultry Products
Inspection Act of 1968, which
established state meat and poultry
inspection, require inspection
programs administered by the
states to be “at least equal to” the
ins' '.ion standards of the
USDA’s Food Safety
Inspection Service
(FSIS).
The bill. H.R. 3750,
does not automatically
lift the ban for all certi
fied state meat and
poultry inspections. The
bill would require each
state to petition the Sec
retary of Agriculture for
the change. The mea
sure would also allow
federal inspectors to
randomly inspect state
inspected plants in addi
tion to the state
inspections.
‘The National Asso
ciation of State Depart
ments of Agriculture
(NASDA) strongly sup
ports the Thomberry
biU,” said Texas Com
missioner of Agricul
ture Rick Perry, “In the
last three years, approx
imately 400 small- and
mid-size meat and poul
try processors have
gone out of business,
many because they are
unfairly prohibited
from interstate com
merce. Without passage
of 4his bill this year,
many more small pack
ers and processors are
going to be forced out
of business because of
the legislated economic
disadvantage they
face.”
In testimony before
the House Agriculture
Subcommittee on
Livestock, Dairy, and
Poultry on June 26, Per
ry said that Texas has
364 state-inspected
plants that “would ben
efit from interstate ship
ment.” He said the
Texas-inspected plants
would increase their
employees by approxi
mately 30 percent and
add an additional $450
million in gross sales if
the plants were allowed
to ship in interstate
commerce.
Senators Larry Press
ler (R-SD) and Orrin G.
Hatch (R-UT) have
introduced companion
legislation, S. 1862, in
the United States
Senate.
NASDA is the non
profit association of
public officials repre
senting the commis
sioners, secretaries, and
directors of agriculture
in the SO states and four
territories.