“(C)ivil rights and worker-safety groups arranged for poultry workers to meet with lawmakers and administration officials to warn against the proposed acceleration of processing-line speeds and to share their accounts of injuries being caused at current speeds,” says Washington Post story about a disputed USDA proposal to boost line speeds at poultry plants.
The proposal also would require processors to take additional step against pathogens.
According to the Post, lobbyists and Hill staffers say the White House’s fiscal 2015 budget, to be released next week, assumes cost savings from educed inspections. “According to the USDA’s regulatory agenda, the agency hopes to finalize the plan in April. But in an e-mail to The Washington Post on Thursday, the USDA said it ‘cannot predict a timeline for when it may move forward.'”
A coalition of opponents presented their case in a statement on Thursday.