I

103D CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 5172

To amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act to provide for the establishment of a Safe Meat and Poultry

Inspection Panel within the United States Department of Agriculture.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OCTOBER 4, 1994

Mr. ROBERTS (for himself, Mr. GUNDERSON, Mr. SMITH of Oregon, Mr. ALLARD, and Mr. BARRETT of Nebraska) introduced the following bill which

was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

A BILL

To amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry

Products Inspection Act to provide for the establishment

of a Safe Meat and Poultry Inspection Panel within

the United States Department of Agriculture.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safe Meat and Poultry

5 Inspection Panel Act’’.
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1 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF SAFE MEAT AND POULTRY IN2 SPECTION PANEL.

3 The Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 601 et

4 seq.) is amended by adding at the end thereof the follow5 ing new section:

6 ‘‘SEC. . SAFE MEAT AND POULTRY INSPECTION

7 PANEL.—‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is hereby estab8 lished in the Department of Agriculture a permanent advi9 sory panel known as the ‘‘Safe Meat and Poultry Inspec10 tion Panel’’.

11 ‘‘(b) PURPOSE.—The Safe Meat and Poultry Inspec12 tion Panel shall review, evaluate, and make comments and

13 recommendations in the form of a report to the Secretary

14 on the adequacy, necessity, safety, cost-effectiveness, and

15 scientific merit of the following:

16 (1) Inspection procedures of, and work rules

17 and worker relations involving Federal employees

18 employed in, plants inspected under this Act.

19 (2) Informal petitions or proposals for changes

20 in inspection procedures, processes, and techniques

21 of plants inspected under this Act.

22 (3) Formal changes in meat inspection regula23 tions, either in notice, proposed, or final form, pro24 mulgated by virtue of authority granted by this Act

25 and within the time limits prescribed for formal

26 comments on such changes.
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1 (4) Such other matters as may be referred to

2 the panel by the Secretary regarding the quality or

3 effectiveness of a safe and cost-effective meat inspec4 tion system under this Act.

5 ‘‘(c) COMPOSITION OF PANEL.—The Safe Meat and

6 Poultry Inspection Panel shall be composed of 7 members,

7 not less than 5 of which members shall be from the food,

8 meat, and poultry science profession, appointed to stag9 gered terms not to exceed three years by the Secretary

10 from nominations received from the National Institutes of

11 Health and the American Meat Science Association and

12 based upon the professional qualifications of the nominees.

13 ‘‘(d) NOMINATIONS.—In constituting the original

14 Safe Meat and Poultry Inspection Panel, the Secretary

15 shall initially solicit 6 nominees from the National Insti16 tutes of Health and 6 nominees from the American Meat

17 Science Association for membership on the panel. Any

18 subsequent vacancy on the panel shall be filled by the Sec19 retary after soliciting 2 nominees from the National Insti20 tutes of Health and 2 nominees from the American Meat

21 Science Association. Nominees shall have a background in

22 public health issues and a scientific expertise in food,

23 meat, and poultry sciences or in veterinary science. The

24 Secretary may require nominees to submit such additional

25 information as the Secretary may deem necessary prior
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1 to completing the selection process. Should any list of

2 nominees provided under this subsection be unsatisfactory,

3 the Secretary may request an additional set of nominees

4 from the nominating entities.

5 ‘‘(e) COMPENSATION.—Each member of the panel

6 shall receive per diem compensation at a rate not in excess

7 of that fixed for GS–18 of the General Schedule as may

8 be determined by the Secretary, except that any such

9 member who holds another office or position under the

10 Federal Government the compensation of which exceeds

11 such rate may elect to receive compensation at the rate

12 provided for such other office or position in lieu of the

13 compensation provided by this subsection.

14 ‘‘(f) CONFLICT OF INTEREST.—The Secretary shall

15 promulgate regulations regarding conflicts of interest with

16 respect to the members of the panel.

17 ‘‘(g) PUBLICATION IN FEDERAL REGISTER.—Any re18 port of the panel to the Secretary shall be published in

19 the Federal Register.

20 ‘‘(h) SECRETARIAL RESPONSE.—Within 90 days of

21 the publication of a panel report under this section, the

22 Secretary shall publish in the Federal Register any re23 sponse required of the Secretary to that report.
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1 ‘‘(i) FUNDING.—From funds available to the Sec2 retary, the Secretary shall allocate such sums as may be

3 necessary to carry out this section.’’.

4 SEC. 3. CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.

5 The Poultry Products Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. 451

6 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end thereof the fol7 lowing new section:

8 ‘‘SEC. . SAFE MEAT AND POULTRY INSPECTION

9 PANEL.—The advisory panel known as the ‘Safe Meat and

10 Poultry Inspection Panel’ established in section of the

11 Federal Meat Inspection Act (21 U.S.C. ) shall also

12 review, evaluate and make comments and recommenda13 tions in the form of a report to the Secretary on the ade14 quacy, necessity, safety, cost-effectiveness, and scientific

15 merit of the following:

16 (1) Inspection procedures of, and work rules

17 and worker relations involving Federal employees

18 employed in, plants inspected under this Act.

19 (2) Informal petitions or proposals for changes

20 in inspection procedures, processes, or techniques of

21 plants inspected under this Act.

22 (3) Formal changes in poultry inspection regu23 lations, either in notice, proposed, or final form, pro24 mulgated by virtue of authority granted by this Act
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1 and within the time limits prescribed for formal

2 comments on such changes.

3 (4) Such other matters as may be referred to

4 the panel by the Secretary regarding the quality or

5 effectiveness of a safe and cost-effective poultry in6 spection system under this Act.’’.

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