Funding for animal-ID program slashed

Federal plans to track livestock and poultry from birth to butcher shop took a hit Monday as senators from Montana and Wyoming gutted the program's funding. Unanimously, the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee cut half the funding for the controversial National Animal Identification System. NAIS would require everyone from large cattle operations to backyard chicken owners to tag livestock and regularly report those animals' whereabouts to the government. The U.S. Department of Agriculture asserts that such a system would allow farm regulators to easily locate sources of disease in the nation's food supply and identify animals that have been potentially exposed. The USDA has spent several years and $142 million developing the program. Western farmers and ranchers have been adamantly opposed to the program, which they consider overreaching and unworkable. Monday's amendment to cut NAIS funding in half was co-sponsored by Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. Tester said the funding cut drives a stake into the program's heart. He has repeatedly said that real food safety needs to begin in packing plants and not on farms and ranches. "This basically cuts funding by $7.3 million," Tester said. "It basically kind of does what I want to have done, which is take some of the steam out of this program." Enzi said the amendment allows reasonable funding for voluntary identification program without burdening ranchers. He noted that House lawmakers deleted all funding for NAIS. A July attempt to do the same in the Senate failed...BillingsGazette

This is typical of the Senate, taking a half-assed approach. When they go to conference, the House should insist on additional cuts.

The Senate is allowing a program to hang around until some "crisis" hits, then you can watch the funding triple and the "voluntary" go out the window.