Dive Summary:
- The U.S. Senate passed an amendment to the sequester bill on Wednesday that funneled $55 million dollars form other USDA funding to ensure that food inspections would remain consistent.
- Without intervention, egg, meat and poultry inspections would have had to have been furloughed for about two weeks to keep up with budgetary cutbacks, effectively shutting down those industries for that time.
- This amendment came as an effort not only to keep our food supplies safe, but to instill some economic stability in otherwise volatile rural communities.
From the article:
The amendment transfers $55 million in existing agriculture funds to the Food Safety and Inspection Service, protecting jobs at egg, meat and poultry facilities, according to the lawmakers who introduced it.
It's estimated the projected furloughs would have closed nearly 6,300 food inspection facilities, resulting in almost $400 million in lost wages for about 500,000 industry workers, Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) said in a joint news release.
