Dodging The Meat Of Reform

Diane Nole sounds weary of trying to convince the federal government and Congress that her son’s death from E. coli more than two years ago might have been prevented if someone had the guts to stand up to the meat industry and insist on a better inspection system.

“It’s such a bureaucratic mess,” Nole said last week as the House Appropriations Committee passed legislation which would postpone implementation of new meat safety regulations, developed by the Clinton administration. The new rules were designed to protect the public from such deadly bacteria as E. coli.

The legislation sets up a panel composed of representatives from the meat-packing industry, organized labor and consumer groups. The panel will rewrite the pending regulations, which require scientific sampling rather than the current sight, touch and smell approach. The pending rules would also require that slaughterhouses clean up their production lines.

Critics say the legislation moving through Congress was written by the meat industry and is really designed to stall for time in the hope an administration more favorable to the industry will be elected in 1996.

Nole doesn’t seem angry, just resigned. Her 2-year-old son, Michael, was one of three children to die during a 1993 outbreak of E. coli poisoning in Washington state. More than 600 others were sickened during the outbreak, traced to undercooked hamburgers from Jack In The Box.

“It doesn’t matter who you vote for,” Nole said. “The meat inspection system is industry based. It always has been, it always will be.”

To Nole, “no one cares, no one really cares.” Following the outbreak, then Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy flew to Washington state and promised the department would move quickly to improve meat inspection and ensure E. coli was eliminated.

Public health officials have become increasingly concerned about food-borne pathogens, including E. coli. It’s currently estimated that up to 20,000 people a year are stricken with E. coli and between 250 and 500 die.

Despite Espy’s promise, the public comment period on the new administration regulations ends this week, and they won’t start being phased in until early 1996. Part of the delay was bureaucratic, part the result of meat industry attempts to block regulations.

Lacking in the debate, so far, have been strong advocates for improved meat inspection from Washington state’s congressional delegation. As the E. coli issue has been raised in the appropriations committee, only Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., has become increasingly outspoken.

Unsuccessfully, Dicks fought a motion in the appropriations committee to postpone implementation of the new regulations. The panel assigned to negotiate new rules would have nine months. But Democrats insisted it would be more like two years.

“Kids die because of this,” Dicks said with a passion he usually reserves for the B-2 and salvage timber sales. “I’m upset it has taken this long. People’s lives have been at risk. To delay it further is unacceptable.”

Dicks said he will fight to remove the postponement provision when the legislation reaches the floor.

Washington state’s Republican House members have shown no interest in becoming involved. In fact, Rep. George Nethercutt, the state’s only other member on the appropriations committee, voted in favor of the postponement.

Nethercutt said after the meeting he thought the proposal was the best way to end bickering and get some new meat inspection regulations in place.

But, the Republicans’ broader regulatory reform effort may delay implementation of the new meat and poultry inspection rules. Under legislation passed by the House and pending in the Senate, cost-benefit analysis and risk assessments would have to be completed before implementing regulations.

Under the bill introduced in the Senate by Majority Leader Bob Dole, peer review panels, including industry representatives, would be created to review the cost benefit analysis and risk assessments.

Nole hasn’t given up, but a cynicism about the political process is evident.

“They are playing Russian roulette,” she said. “They don’t care who it hurts. I’m so tired of this.”

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