USDA says meat inspection fees needed to avoid cutting 2,000 employees

The Bush administration has not yet asked for legislation to allow the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service to establish meat inspection user fees, though President Bush's fiscal 2006 budget counts on them to pay for essential services.

Acting Agriculture Undersecretary for Food Safety Merle Pierson told Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, the administration has neither submitted legislation nor "surveyed" support for it.

Of the $849.7 million budgeted for FSIS, $139 million would come from those new fees to cover the cost of meat inspections.

Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., noted the Bush administration proposed user fees last year, although it did not request them to pay for vital services.

Pierson said the $139 million is needed "to meet our statutory responsibilities" and if FSIS does not get the money, it would be forced to cut 2,000 employees.

Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Fla., noted that administrations have unsuccessfully proposed user fees for 30 years. And Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, said: "It's been going on forever. It won't happen."

Both meat companies and consumer advocates have opposed additional user fees for inspection.