Animal ID money may be cut in ag bill

Funding for the national animal identification system would be zeroed out under the fiscal year 2010 agriculture appropriations bill approved June 11 by the House Ag-riculture Appropriations Subcommittee. USDA has been trying to implement a national animal identification program that would trace each animal from birth to food use since the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States in December 2003. USDA initially proposed making the program mandatory, but it remained voluntary amid strong opposition from cattle ranchers. Only about one-third of animal premises in the country have signed up to be registered, and DeLauro has strongly criticized USDA for its management of the program. As House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., noted at the markup, USDA has received $142 million for animal identification since fiscal 2004 and has registered only 35 percent of animal premises. Last year, USDA got $14.2 million to run the program, but increased registrations by only 3 percent. At this rate, DeLauro said, it will take USDA 12 years to register all the animal premises in the country. DeLauro said she favors mandatory registration and noted that it took Canada only two years to register all its premises. DeLauro told reporters afterward that she favors a mandatory animal identification system because she thinks it would “provide assurance against economic calamity” and “protect our export markets.” But DeLauro said she also thinks USDA has mismanaged the program and wasted money...AgWeek

To whom will the USDA be most responsive?

The thousands of livestock producers attending the USDA sessions and strongly opposing the program, or the the committee chairman who controls their budget?

Take a wild guess.