Dive Summary:
- The Center for Food Safety and Center for Environmental Health have sued the federal government over the many delays experienced in deciding and implementing the FSMA.
- While lawyers from the organization claim the lawsuit is meant to quicken the pace of approval for the bill, the Justice Department feels the lawsuit has no bearing and is calling for it to be thrown out.
- In response to the lawsuit, federal lawyers have admitted there were delays and deadlines broken, however these were done in the name of thoroughness and specificity, not on purpose.
From the article:
"The sole remedy available for an unreasonable agency delay claim is for the court to compel agency action, such as by issuing an order requiring the agency to act, without directing the substantive content of the decision," lawyers for the Justice Department wrote. "However, in matters involving rulemaking on complex scientific and technical issues, courts routinely refuse to intervene to compel agency action by a certain date."
