§679a Safe Meat and Poultry Inspection Panel

Summary

Creates a permanent advisory group in the Department of Agriculture called the Safe Meat and Poultry Inspection Panel. The panel must review whether inspection methods, worker rules, informal proposals, and proposed or final regulation changes are needed, safe, cost-effective, and supported by science. It must send reports with recommendations to the Secretary for each review. Reports about formal regulation changes must meet the normal comment deadlines. Each report must be published in the Federal Register, and the Secretary must publish any response within 90 days after that publication. The panel has 7 members, and at least 5 must come from food, meat, or poultry science. Members are appointed by the Secretary to staggered terms of no more than 3 years from nominees provided by the National Institutes of Health and the Federation of American Societies of Food Animal Science. For the first panel the Secretary must ask each group for 6 nominees; for later vacancies the Secretary must ask each group for 2 nominees. Nominees must have public health experience and scientific expertise in food, meat, poultry, or veterinary science. The Secretary can request more information or new nominee lists if needed. Members may be paid travel expenses and per diem at the same rate allowed for intermittent government workers (see 5 U.S.C. 5703). The Secretary must create conflict-of-interest rules for members. Chapter 10 of Title 5 and Title XVIII of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 do not apply to the panel. The Secretary must use available funds under this chapter and the Poultry Products Inspection Act to pay for the panel.