[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 79 (Wednesday, June 21, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S5556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. HARKIN:
  S. 2760. A bill to clarify the authority of the Secretary of 
Agriculture to establish performance standards for the reduction of 
microbiological pathogens in meat and poultry; to the Committee on 
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.


    microbiological performance standards clarification act of 2000

  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Microbiological 
Performance Standards Clarification Act of 2000. Passage of this bill 
is vital because on May 25th, the District Court of the Northern 
District of Texas struck down the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 
(USDA) authority to enforce its Microbiological Performance Standard 
for Salmonella. The District Court's decision in Supreme Beef v. USDA 
(Supreme) seriously undermines the sweeping food safety changes adopted 
by USDA in its 1996 Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point and Pathogen 
Reduction (HACCP) rule.
  The District Court's decision in Supreme says that USDA does not have 
the authority to enforce Microbiological Performance Standards for 
reducing viral and bacterial pathogens.
  The Pathogen Reduction Rule recognized that bacterial and viral 
pathogens were the foremost food safety threat in America, responsible 
for 5,000 deaths and 33 million illnesses. To address the threat of 
foodborne illness, USDA developed a modern inspection system based on 
two fundamental principles.
  The first was that industry has the primary responsibility to 
determine how to produce the safest products possible. Industry had to 
examine their plants and determine how to control contamination at 
every step of the food production process, from the moment a product 
arrives at their door until the moment it leaves their plant.
  The second, even more crucial principle was that plants nationwide 
must reduce levels of dangerous pathogens in meat and poultry products. 
To ensure the new inspection system accomplished this, USDA developed 
Microbiological Performance Standards. These standards provide targets 
for reducing pathogens and require all USDA-inspected facilities to 
meet them. Facilities failing to meet a standard are shut down until 
they create a corrective action plan to meet the standard.
  To date, USDA has only issued one Microbiological Performance 
Standard, for Salmonella. The vast majority of plants in the U.S. have 
been able to meet the new standard, so it is clearly workable. In 
addition, USDA reports that Salmonella levels for meat and poultry 
products have fallen substantially. The Salmonella standard, therefore, 
has been successful. The District Court's decision threatens to destroy 
this success and set our food safety system back years.
  Congress cannot let a court's unfortunate misinterpretation of USDA's 
authority undermine our efforts to provide the safest food possible and 
the strongest food safety system available. Whatever the ultimate 
outcome of the Supreme Beef case, it is intolerable to have so much 
uncertainty about USDA's authority to enforce food safety regulations. 
The public should not have to worry about whether the products on their 
table have met food safety standards. This legislation provides the 
necessary clarification and assurance that if a product bears the USDA 
stamp of approval, it has met all of USDA's food safety requirements.
  I plan to seek every opportunity to get this language enacted. I 
think it is essential, both to ensuring the modernization of our food 
safety system, and ensuring consumers that we are making progress in 
reducing dangerous pathogens.
  I hope that both parties, and both houses of Congress will be able to 
act to pass this legislation before the July 4th weekend. The public's 
confidence in our meat and poultry inspection system is at stake.
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