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Vilsack commits to exempting mechanically tenderized beef rule from Uniform Compliance Regulation
Story Date: 2/26/2015
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Source: PRESS RELEASE, 2/25/15
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) today won a commitment from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack that he would suspend the Uniform Labeling Regulation so that the long-pending rule for labeling mechanically tenderized beef (MTB) products can finally be issued. DeLauro asked Secretary Vilsack to take this step in a letter sent last week.
The MTB labeling rule has gone through a protracted process and been languishing for over ten years. When the Uniform Labeling Regulation is suspended for this rule it will enable it to be published and implemented in 2016, instead of 2018.
The commitment was made during an Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing. DeLauro is a former Chairwoman of that subcommittee.
At the hearing DeLauro also expressed strong support of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly known as food stamps) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant, and Children (WIC). She pointed out that for every dollar spent on a pregnant woman in WIC up to $4.21 is saved in Medicaid due to reduced preterm and low-weight births.
DeLauro also pushed for the publication of the proposed rule on beef grinding, which would require retail stores to keep records on all source materials used in preparation of raw ground beef. Secretary Vilsack said he would push forward the grinding rule in a timely fashion.
DeLauro ended her questioning by expressing her deep concern with the Administration’s pursuit of Fast Track trade promotion authority, which would limit debate and deny members of Congress the opportunity to amend the expansive, job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership. She quoted from an October 2014 USDA report that calculated that if the TPP slashed all tariffs and tariff-rate-quotas to zero, it would not alter U.S. gross domestic product at all. That report can be read here.
The TPP is based on the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and in the two years since that agreement took effect, U.S. exports to Korea have declined and growing trade deficits with the country have resulted in nearly 60,000 lost U.S. jobs.
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