WASHINGTON — Meat Institute President and Chief Executive Officer Julie Anna Potts wrote to President Donald Trump on Jan. 27 to request the swift implementation of two executive orders (EO) that could remove some of the regulatory burdens affecting consumers and meat prices. The two EOs the Meat Institute called upon were Regulatory Freeze Pending Review and Delivering Emergency Price Relief to American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis.
“Several regulatory actions taken by the previous administration are (or will be, if finalized) so costly and burdensome, they will drive up the cost of meat and poultry products for consumers,” Potts wrote.
One of these regulatory actions Potts referred to was the Inclusive Competition and Market Integrity Under the Packers and Stockyards Act.
“Despite a lack of legal authority and the presence of court precedent to the contrary, the rule attempts to enshrine diversity, equity and inclusion concepts into a regulation of the Packers and Stockyards Act,” Potts said.
The Meat Institute urged the president to direct the secretary of agriculture to rescind the final rule, which was published in the Federal Register in March 2024.
Similarly, the group requested the third and most recent installment of the USDA’s series of Packers and Stockyards Act rules be revoked. The Poultry Grower Payment Systems and Capital Improvement Systems rule was published earlier this month with the intention of giving chicken farmers better insight into companies’ payment rates for their birds, according to the USDA.
The third USDA rule that the Meat Institute wishes to see withdrawn is the proposed Salmonella Framework for Raw Poultry Products rule, which was published in the Federal Register in August 2024. A topic of much controversy, the rule originally stipulated a 60-day comment period before becoming finalized but experienced pushback from stakeholders for more time, leading to an extension until November 2024 for the public to respond.
“The proposal should be withdrawn and reproposed as a performance standard with the input of stakeholders,” Potts said.
As a fourth request, the Meat Institute asked President Trump to direct the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw the proposed rule Clean Water Act Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Meat and Poultry Products Point Source Category.
“EPA’s economic analysis of the proposal grossly underestimates the cost of compliance,” Potts warned. “Indeed, even using EPA’s flawed accounting, 16 meat and poultry facilities would be forced to close as a direct result of the cost of compliance.”
Although the Meat Institute criticized several past regulations from the USDA, there was one Potts’ praised in her letter — the New Swine Inspection System (NSIS). Introduced during Trump’s first term, NSIS encouraged inspection modernization for pork processing. The provision authorizing facilities to operate above traditional line speeds, however, was halted by a court. NSIS’s poultry predecessor, the New Poultry Inspection System, was finalized under the Obama administration without an inspection rate provision.
“The Meat Institute encourages USDA to expeditiously issue Interim Final Rules to allow all interested and compliant modernized pork and poultry facilities to operate above traditional line speed restrictions,” Potts wrote.