Boozman, Thompson Statement on Results of USDA’s Worker Safety Studies

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) and U.S. House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Glenn "GT" Thompson (R-PA) issued the following statement on USDA's studies on poultry and swine processing line speeds and worker safety:

"The Biden-Harris administration needlessly created years of uncertainty throughout the duration of these studies, which deviated far beyond the original mission and attempted to villainize the pork and poultry industry, despite no findings of higher line speeds being a leading factor of increased risk to workers. These studies confirm what we have known all along - U.S. meat and poultry companies have the highest worker safety standards in the world. We look forward to working with the incoming Trump administration to develop a long-term solution to ensure meat and poultry companies have the ability to operate at higher line speeds, while maintaining rigorous food safety and worker safety standards."

Background:

Senate and House Republicans called on USDA to provide certainty to meat and poultry plants throughout the department's implementation of the Time-Limited Trials and to provide a path forward that would allow them to operate at increased line speeds. Senate Republicans' Farm Bill framework announced in 2024 would provide a permanent solution to ensure pork and poultry processing facilities are able to maintain full and operational capacity.