HIMP Debate Sneaks Into FY 2014 Budget Negotiations for USDA, FDA

Members of the Safe Food Coalition and the Worker Health and Safety Coalition wrote to members of Congress this week, asking them not to reduce the budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service and to remove language from the funding bill that urges the agency to move forward with its proposed HACCP-based Inspection Model Program (HIMP) for poultry plants.  “We have serious concerns about USDA’s poultry inspection proposal and its impact on public health,” reads the letter. It was sent Monday to heads of the agriculture appropriations subcommittees in the House and Senate who are currently negotiating a FY 2014 spending plan for USDA and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  “USDA’s poultry inspection system does need to be modernized, but this proposal raises serious food safety and worker safety concerns. We urge you to remove the report language from the final appropriations report and to restore the budget cut of $11.73 million,” the letter states.  In the Senate’s appropriations bill, FSIS would receive just over $1 billion, a $7-million decrease from last year. The Houses’s funding bill would give the agency $999 million.