Currently, U.S. meat and poultry slaughter facilities and processing plants operate under one of two parallel inspection systems. The one familiar to most people is the federal meat and poultry inspection system administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Food Safety and Inspection System (FSIS). The other is made up of 27 separate state-administered inspection programs. Federal law has prohibited state-inspected meat and poultry plants from shipping their products across state lines, a ban that many states and small plants have long sought to overturn. Both the House and Senate versions of the omnibus farm bill ( H.R. 2419 ) included amendments to the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA) that would permit interstate shipment of these products if USDA approves and certain requirements are met. However, the Senate approach diverged in significant ways from the House version. The conference farm bill, cleared in May 2008, generally opted for the Senate approach, viewed by many on both sides of the issue as an acceptable compromise. Proponents of ending the current ban have long argued that limiting state-inspected products to intrastate commerce is unfair. Many state agencies and state-inspected plants have argued that their programs by law already must be, and are, "at least equal" to the federal system. While state-inspected plants cannot ship interstate, foreign plants operating under USDA-approved foreign programs, which are to be "equivalent" to the U.S. program, can export meat and poultry products into and sell them anywhere in the United States. Advocates for change have contended that that they should not be treated less fairly than the foreign plants, and that foreign programs are not as closely scrutinized as state programs. Opponents of allowing state-inspected products in interstate commerce have argued that state programs are not required to have, and do not have, the same level of safety oversight as the federal, or even the foreign, plants. For example, foreign meat and poultry products are subject to U.S. import reinspection at ports of entry, and again, when most imported meat is further processed in U.S.-inspected processing plants. Opponents also contended that neither the USDA Inspector General (OIG) in a 2006 report nor a relevant 2002 federal appeals court ruling would agree, without qualification, that state-inspected meat and poultry were necessarily as safe as federally inspected products. Approximately 2,100 meat and poultry establishments in 27 states are subject to state-conducted rather than federal inspection programs. However, these state programs are operated in accordance with cooperative agreements that USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has with each of the states; the federal government also provides 50% of the cost of state programs. The "Federal and State Cooperation" provisions of the FMIA (21 U.S.C. 661) were added by the Wholesome Meat Act of 1967 (P.L. 90-201). Congressional Quarterly (CQ) at the time of the 1967 legislation observed that the state cooperation provision was "[t]he farthest-reaching portion [of the measure] ... aimed at helping—or, if necessary, forcing—states to strengthen their own meat inspection systems." All plants providing meat for interstate and foreign commerce had been subject to federal inspection regulations basically since passage of the Meat Inspection Act of 1907. However, plants that limited their product sales within a state were covered by what critics described as a patchwork of varying, often inadequate laws and regulations; seven of them had no inspection at all, according to CQ. "Revelations in the press and during committee hearings about slaughter and packing practices at some state plants made meat inspection the most emotional consumer issue of 1967." Currently, the Secretary of Agriculture (hereafter, USDA or FSIS) is authorized to approve a cooperative program in any state if it has enacted a "law that imposes mandatory ante mortem and post mortem inspection, reinspection and sanitation requirements that are at least equal to those under Title I of [the FMIA], with respect to all or certain classes of persons engaged in the State in slaughtering amenable species [i.e., cattle, sheep, swine, goats, equines], or preparing the carcasses, parts thereof, meat or meat food products, of any animals for use as human food solely for distribution within such State" (21 U.S.C. 661(a)(1); emphasis added by CRS). Section 661 also requires USDA to assume federal inspection of state plants whenever a state decides to terminate its own program, or USDA determines that FMIA requirements are not being met. Pursuant to the FMIA as amended by the Wholesome Meat Act, USDA-FSIS must receive a formal request for a program from the governor, and review the state's laws, regulations, and performance plan (including funding, staffing, training, labels and standards, enforcement, laboratory and testing procedures, and other aspects). To ensure continued compliance, FSIS annually certifies state programs based on a review of materials (like performance plans and an annual report submitted by the state); FSIS also conducts a more comprehensive review of each state every one to five years. Section 11103 of the House version of H.R. 2419 would have rewritten rather than merely amended Title III of the FMIA. It would have entailed a number of major departures from current authority. The Senate language was approved as Section 11067. House-Senate conferees generally adopted the Senate language, as Section 11015 of the final bill. Unlike the provisions in the House bill, the conference-adopted Senate language would not replace Title III (federal-state cooperation) in the current FMIA. Rather, it would create a new Title V—Inspections by Federal and State Agencies. Currently, state-inspected meat cannot be sold in interstate commerce. Under the Senate bill as endorsed by the conference committee, state programs currently operating under the Title III "at least equal to" requirements presumably could continue, so long as products were not shipped across state lines. The new Title V would enable many state-inspected establishments—i.e., those already covered by Title III—to be selected by USDA (in cooperation with the state agency) to receive the federal mark of inspection and ship products in interstate commerce. Although state inspectors could continue to be in these designated plants, inspection in such plants essentially would be under federal supervision. More specifically, under the conference (and Senate ) bill, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture would be required to designate and directly supervise a federal employee as the state coordinator for each appropriate state agency. This new coordinator's responsibilities would be to provide oversight and enforcement of Title V, and to oversee state training and inspection activities by state personnel. The coordinator would have to visit the covered establishments to ensure they are operating consistently with the FMIA, submit quarterly reports on each establishment's status and compliance, and "deselect" plants or suspend their inspection if they violate any requirement. The House language would have explicitly allowed "the shipment in commerce" of products (i.e., carcasses, carcass parts, meat, and meat food products) under the newly approved Title III programs. Another House provision would have changed Title IV of the current FMIA to further direct that "a State or local government shall not prohibit or restrict the movement or sale of meat or meat food products that have been inspected and passed in accordance with the Act for interstate commerce." Currently USDA is authorized to approve state programs that have requirements at least equal to federal requirements. According to FSIS, "at least equal to" now means "that the food safety and other consumer protection measures effected by a State program address the same issues addressed by the Federal (FSIS) program, and the results of the State's approach are to be at least as effective as those of the Federal program. The State program need not take exactly the same action as the Federal program." The proposed House language would have authorized USDA to approve (and then enter into cooperative agreements with) only those state programs that "adopt (including adoption by reference) provisions identical to titles I, II, and IV (including the regulations, directives, notices, policy memoranda, and other regulatory requirements under those titles) ..." States would have had to ensure that their products bear a mark of state inspection as the official mark. Titles I, II and IV essentially are all other provisions of the FMIA, which cover such components as inspection requirements, definitions of adulteration and misbranding, and enforcement authorities, among other provisions. The conference (and Senate ) bill would limit eligible establishments to those with 25 or fewer employees. Also, USDA would be authorized to develop procedures enabling state-inspected establishments with more than 25 employees to shift to regular federal inspection. Finally, under the conference ( Senate ) version, state-inspected plants with more than 25 employees but fewer than 35 employees could be selected for the new state program, but they would have to shift to regular federal inspection within three years of promulgation of a final rule. The House version would have imposed a restriction limiting the size of an establishment that could be accepted under a new state program to no more than 50 employees. However, it appears that larger establishments could have continued to participate if they became state-inspected within 90 days of enactment. Under the conference (and Senate ) bill, current, future, and previously federally inspected establishments would be ineligible to join the new state program. Under the House bill, certain establishments that currently are federally inspected could have applied for inspection under the new state program if their states had one. Currently, USDA and the states with programs enter into formal cooperative agreements that provide for, among other things, matching federal funds of 50%.