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Capital Press | FSIS denies inspector furloughs meant to inflict pain
March 19, 2013 FSIS denies inspector furloughs meant to inflict pain
By Carol Ryan Dumas | Capital Press | March 19, 2013
A top USDA official has told Congress that the impending furlough of meat inspectors were not designed to maximize the pain caused by the budget sequestration.
Elisabeth Hagan, USDA undersecretary of food safety, testified last week before the House Subcommittee on Ag Appropriations. She was questioned by members about USDA's decision to furlough meat inspectors to meet spending reductions under sequestration and pressed her for alternatives.
The department is making between $2 billion and $3 billion in spending reductions through the end of September as required by the 2011 Budget Control Act.
The lack of meat inspections would cause the shutdown of slaughter and processing plants, would cause shortages in food supply and affect prices, according to USDA.
"I think there's healthy skepticism in our country that a 5 percent reduction in any agency would result in the types of reduction that would have such a potential dramatic impact ... ," said Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan.
Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, was even more to the point, asking, "Have you been told to make this as painful as possible like other parts of USDA?"
"Absolutely not," Hagan said, adding that she is not aware any such statements had been made within USDA.
Hagen said USDA doesn't have the flexibility to do anything else at this point.
Subcommittee Chairman Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., said he does not agree Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack's position that the sky is falling and that furloughing meat inspectors is unavoidable.
The Food Inspection and Safety Service's budget has increased by nearly $75 million from 2008 to about $1 billion, he said.
Hagan said 88 percent of FSIS budget goes to frontline inspectors and supporting staff and there's no other way to come up with the necessary cuts without furloughs.
"If we thought there were other options, we would pursue them," Hagan said.
Vilsack has said all 9,212 FSIS employees, including 8,136 frontline inspectors and personnel, will be furloughed on the same days, now estimated at 11 days, during the remainder of the fiscal year.
With the sequester on everyone's radar, Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., asked when FSIS began planning for the spending cuts and whether FSIS has a contingency plan for furloughing inspectors, such as rolling furloughs.
Hagen said FSIS has made cuts to its spending over the last three years, but no amount of fiscal planning could prepare the agency for $52.8 million in cuts six months into the fiscal year.
A rolling furlough, which would require moving inspectors around to unfamiliar assignments, is not an option because it would require additional travel expenditures and could compromise food safety, she said.
In addition, the agency is trying to be fair to the industry. If it furloughs inspectors according to product classification or plant size or geographic location, it could mean that some industry sectors would take a hit others wouldn't if sequestration were resolved, she said.
The agency plans to furlough employees on nonconsecutive days, likely once a week beginning in mid-July, following required employee notification and union negotiations, she said.
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., asked if there was any flexibility in the consistent presence of inspectors at slaughter facilities and the once-per-shift inspections at processing plants.
Hagan said processing plant inspectors visit different establishments on the same day and the system is so integrated that what happens in one sector affects the others.
Hagan acknowledged that during past government shutdowns, inspectors were identified as essential and exempt to furloughs. But, she said, the sequester this is not a government shutdown or a lapse in appropriation. It's a permanent, mandatory cut, and FSIS is prohibited from spending money it doesn't have.
Yoder asked if there were any wasteful uses of resources at FSIS that could be cut and cause a lesser impact.
The agency has been very aggressive in the past three years and has taken actions to find efficiencies and reduce spending, but it still doesn't get the agency to the point of being able to absorb the sequester cuts at this point in the fiscal year, she said.
Yoder asked what FSIS would do if it had to operate on 95 percent of its current budget permanently and Congress passed legislation that no frontline inspectors could be furloughed.
"We'd have to figure that out," Hagan said.
Given more time to plan, the agency could absorb such a cut more easily, she said.
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