PRST STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID OMAHA, NE PERMIT NO. 36
Volume VII, Statewide Issue 2
A ray of hope from the capital? by Gordon Wolf On the same day a conference call for the media provided details of sequestration’s devastating impact on individuals and the economy, a ray of hope came from the nation’s capital. On Wednesday the U.S. Senate passed, by a voice vote, an amendment to transfer $55 million in existing agriculture funds to the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) to keep food inspectors from being furloughed And, according to news reports, the Senate also approved, by a 73-26 vote on Wednesday, a continuing resolution bill that will keep the government operating through the end of September. The measures were scheduled to go to the U.S. House this week. The issue of sequestration left individuals with uncertainty how the $85 billion across-the-board
spending cuts would personally affect them. As of Wednesday, attention continued to focus on the possible effects and ripple impact of sequestration on agriculture, which one meat inspector said would have a global impact. Trent Berhow, of Kiron, a meat inspector for 22 years and member of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) said during the conference on Wednesday that 85 percent of the FSIS annual budget is devoted to salaries, and the method in which FSIS intends to cut its spending is to send the meat, poultry and ag products inspectors home on furlough. Berhow, who is president of the Midwest Council of Food Inspection Locals with jurisdiction in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, stated the furloughs for all FSIS employees, including the 6,500 food safety inspectors nationwide (and the 275 inspectors in Iowa) would be across-theboard and all at one time for 11 to 15 days. Because plants cannot operate without food inspectors, they would be forced to close, he point-
MARCH 2013
ed out. According to an article in the Omaha World-Herald, the plan would be to furlough all FSIS workers nationwide for the same 11 non-consecutive days this summer from mid-July into September. Berhow said approximately three weeks ago he had a conference call with FSIS, in which the decision-makers said they were adamant they will not stagger the furloughs. “When they in fact furlough, they intend to furlough all 10,000 FSIS employees simultaneously. As far as the agency is concerned, as recently as three weeks ago, there are no other options other than furloughing everybody simultaneously. When the furloughs come, the plants are shutting down. That’s all there is to it,” Berhow stated. The conference call included speakers on sequestration’s effects on Head Start and Early Head Start, small business, special education recipients of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. SEQUESTRATION . . . Page 3