USDA overrules lower-level official, retains salmonella standard

The Bush administration decided Thursday to withdraw the Agriculture Department's proposal to end the requirement for zero tolerance of salmonella in school lunch hamburger meat.

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman released a statement Thursday saying, "We're withdrawing proposed changes in procedures for meat and poultry related to the school lunch program" because they were "released prior to receiving appropriate review."

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Consumer Federation of America food safety expert Carol Tucker Foreman praised the reversal, but denounced the administration's plans to change a Clinton administration requirement enacted last year at the request of consumer groups.

"We thank [the] Bush administration for seeing the folly of their ways," Durbin said, but added: "First it's arsenic in water. Now it's salmonella in school lunches. Where will this end? Beef in our school lunch program is paid for by taxpayers and served to young children who are vulnerable to foodborne illnesses. Both deserve better than ground beef that might not even meet the standards required by some fast food restaurants."

Durbin said Bush "needs to call in his Cabinet and say `Hold off on the special interest groups for a while.'" Asked by a reporter if the White House was in a "shakedown period," Durbin said: "I'm not going to let them off the hook. Mothers across America will not tolerate this sort of thing."

National Cattlemen's Beef Association lobbyist Chandler Keys said the rule USDA proposed would "mirror" the salmonella standards commercial firms use to buy meat, but Foreman, who noted there are deaths from salmonella each year, said the standards for school lunch should be higher because taxpayers pay for it.

The Clinton administration had established the zero tolerance requirement on an interim basis last year, but it had not been finalized. The USDA Agriculture Marketing Service's decision to change the requirement had not been formally announced, but was the subject of front-page stories in newspapers across the country on Thursday, perhaps signaling confusion between the White House and the Agriculture Department.

But Foreman and White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said a low-level USDA employee made the decision. Foreman said consumer groups found out about it after acting Agriculture Marketing Service Administrator Ken Clayton went to North Carolina and "bragged" about the decision in a speech and then informed Veneman about it.