CHICAGO,
IL – U.S Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today at a news conference
denounced President Bush’s possible reversal of zero tolerance for salmonella
in ground beef served to children in schools. Average daily participation
in the school lunch program is 27,000,000 children. Nancy Donley,
a mother who lost her young son due to tainted meat, joined Schakowsky
at Peirce School in Chicago for today’s event.
There
are 600 deaths each year in the United States resulting from salmonella
and 1.4 million illnesses. Under a standard set by the Clinton Administration,
the Department of Agriculture rejected 5 million pounds of beef because
of salmonella contamination and the Department has found it in over 5%
of the school lunch samples. The single largest supplier of beef to the
school lunch program in 1999-2000 was Supreme Beef of Dallas. That is the
ONLY company in the country that failed salmonella testing instituted by
the Department of Agriculture.
The
following is Schakowsky’s statement:
“When
my constituents send their young children to school in the morning, those
parents don’t need to have another reason to worry about the safety of
their children. Thanks to President Bush and his close allies in
the meat industry, parents should start to worry. The administration
has clearly signaled that it is considering yet another attack on public
health.
“I
still haven’t been able to fully digest arsenic in the water, and now it’s
salmonella in the meat. At a time when Senator Durbin is proposing
to step up inspection of imported meats because of mad cow disease and
hoof and mouth disease, the Bush Administration is thinking about cutting
inspection of meats for our school children right here at home. That is
incomprehensible. What a sad day in America when children will be
safer eating a happy meal instead of their school lunch.
“We
need to send a clear signal back to this Administration that we will not
tolerate this kind of reckless public policy that is a pay back to the
special interests. It’s no surprise that the meat industry group
wrote to Secretary Veneman on March 21 complaining about current safety
standards, and in less than month, the Administration showed who it really
wants to protect. And it is not our school children.
“I
don’t trust Bush on public health issues as far as I could throw a cow.
“Bush
has said that he will leave no child behind. If his administration
puts this plan into action, plenty of kids will be left behind, sick at
home or in the hospital. And in some cases, maybe even lost forever.” |