Thomas Daschle: “the debate that has been taking place all day today on the impact of this bill on food safety and specifically its…”

“the debate that has been taking place all day today on the impact of this bill on food safety and specifically its impact on the Department of Agriculture's proposed rule to require science-based hazard analysis and critical control point or HACCP systems in meat and poultry plants is really very important. Secretary Glickman sent a letter this morning to the majority leader and to me expressing his strong opposition to S. 343 because it would unnecessarily delay USDA's food safety reform, among other things. I believe Senator Glenn has submitted the letter for the record. The letter explains that the peer review requirement in S. 343 will delay USDA's food safety reform by at least 6 months. As I read this bill and Secretary Glickman's letter, the bill requires that risk assessments underlying both proposed and final regulations be peer reviewed prior to becoming final. And there has been a good discussion about the applications of peer review this afternoon. In other words, before USDA can issue a final regulation reforming our meat and poultry inspection systems--a regulation that has been in the works for more than 2 years and is based on more than 10 years' of reform efforts--S. 343 would require that the final rule be peer reviewed. According to Secretary Glickman, this peer review requirement would result in a 6- month delay in this essential food safety reform. The Dole amendment does not address this unnecessary delay.”