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On February 1, 2018, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) published its proposed rule, the Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection. As part of this rule, FSIS proposed to revoke maximum swine slaughter line speeds for participating establishments and authorize them to set their own line speeds based on their ability to maintain quality and performance measures. FSIS compared worker safety data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for large establishments with different allowed line speeds.
On March 26, 2019, 16 members of Congress sent a formal request to the OIG to review USDA’s rulemaking process related to the proposed rules’ worker safety analysis. Based on the inspection, the OIG found that FSIS did not fully disclose its data sources in its worker safety analysis. Additionally, it was concluded that FSIS did not fully adhere to the USDA Information Quality Activities Guidelines data presentation and transparency requirements in the worker safety analysis section in the proposed rule. Finally, it was concluded that FSIS did not take adequate steps to determine whether the worker safety data it used for the proposed rule were reliable.
OIG recommended that FSIS update its internal procedures for the rulemaking process, determine the impact of the omissions from the proposed rule, and communicate to the public the actual review period and known limitations of the OSHA data.
FSIS provided its response to the OIG findings and recommendations, and the OIG accepted management decision on two of the four recommendations.
View the full document here: FSIS Rulemaking Process for the Proposed Rule: Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection
June 2020/ USDA/ United States.
https://www.usda.gov/
