February 6, 2007

USDA proposes fees for repeat meat inspection violations

The Bush administration is proposing to Congress a plan that would allow the US Department of Agriculture to charge fees to meat production facilities with repeat violations.

Scott Steele, a USDA budget official, said Monday (Feb 5) that plants would only be charged the fee if they failed to correct a problem.

"If the problem isn't corrected and we have to go back in a second time, that's when we would propose having a ...re-inspection fee," Steele said.

This proposal, USDA officials said Monday, is the first of its kind and replaces years of fruitless attempts to get Congress to approve broader user fees for general inspection services.

"It will make the plants get better," USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety Richard Raymond said Monday after USDA unveiled its new budget proposal for fiscal year 2008. "It's an incentive plan."

Another new fee proposed for the meat industry by USDA would be charged for licensing facilities and it would be levied based on volume. Raymond said the licensing fees would raise US$92 million per year for the government.

"Everybody else has to have a license...so why not the people that provide our food," Raymond said. "It would cost 0.1 cent per pound of product, so it won't drive up the cost of hamburger too much."

Last year the Bush administration proposed charging user fees for meat inspection in plants that operate beyond one shift. Most major meat producers operate more than one shift at production facilities. Congress rejected that proposal.