House panel cool to 'downer' ban

By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times Washington bureau

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WASHINGTON — Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman got an earful of praise at a congressional hearing yesterday for her candor and decisiveness during the mad-cow crisis.

But members of the House Agriculture Committee were far less enthusiastic about Veneman's ban on so-called downer cows than some lawmakers who gathered at a separate news conference to call for quick passage of the Downed Animal Protection Act.

The act would codify and expand the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rule imposed last month to prevent cows that can neither stand nor walk from entering the beef supply.

Experts say downer cattle, which tend to be older and sick, are more likely to be infected with mad-cow disease.

Four weeks after a cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) arrived at a slaughterhouse in Moses Lake, food safety has became a major focus on Capitol Hill.

Mad-cow update • Japan said yesterday it has ordered meat wholesalers not to sell hundreds of tons of American T-bone steaks and other beef products imported before the country imposed a ban in reaction to the discovery of mad-cow disease in the United States. T-bone steaks were included because they are cut from the area where a cow's vertebrae meet its ribs — a point that can contain spinal tissue where the protein that causes mad-cow disease has been found. • Oregon agriculture officials yesterday ordered no cows be removed from a dairy near Boardman, after a cow there was traced to the same Canadian herd as a mad-cow-afflicted animal found on a Washington farm. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been trying to locate all animals potentially connected with that herd from a farm in Alberta, Canada. — The Associated Press

Yesterday began with Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, joining a group of lawmakers and representatives of animal-rights and consumer groups to support downer-cow legislation they contend is long overdue.

Cantwell said she co-sponsored an amendment last year that would have banned downer cows, but it was dumped in the legislative process.

Had the measure passed, Cantwell said, all the chaos of the past month could have been avoided.

"Those who worked against it did no favors to consumers or the food industry, which is reeling," she said. "Let this be a wake-up call for the U.S. Senate to pay more attention to these issues."

But many of the 51 members of the House Agriculture Committee — most of whom come from farm states — feared too much legislative meddling.

Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., reminded the packed hearing that the committee had so far resisted banning downer livestock, with the support of the White House.

Goodlatte said he was concerned that downer cattle would be destroyed without being tested for diseases such as BSE and tuberculosis.

Before the USDA's new rules announced Dec. 30, downer cows were marked "inspected and passed" and allowed into the food supply pending BSE test results.

"If the secretary's current policy had been in place previously, we would not even have found this BSE-infected cow," he said.

Warning of burdensome regulations, Goodlatte added: "A cure that is worse than the disease is no cure at all."

Veneman responded that the USDA was planning to increase BSE testing of downer cattle from 20,000 to 40,000 animals this year. About 35 million cattle are killed annually.

Other Agriculture Committee members recounted the concerns of their districts.

A representative from Oklahoma wondered whether the USDA would compensate cattlemen for downer livestock. If money wasn't forthcoming, the "animals would end up in the back of the farm or in a hole somewhere," he said, and never be tested.

A Hawaiian congressman said his constituents would be hurt by the new requirement that slaughterhouses hold on to carcasses while they are tested for BSE. The tests take a week or more for results, although Veneman said the department probably soon will approve a quick test that could get results in 48 hours.

A lawmaker from North Carolina noted that broken legs — one cause of downers — were not uncommon as cattle approached the slaughterhouse, and "a broken leg doesn't cause BSE."

Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens, is the only Washington state member of the Agriculture Committee.

He said many of the dairy farms in his district were concerned that increased efforts to track cattle would be costly and might lead to increased liability.

But some legislation looks likely, given the renewed interest in food safety and the regulatory moves by USDA.

And Larsen said banning downer cows may be just the beginning.

"We have a system that reacts," he said. "We need to move to a food-safety system that is preventative. The public needs to know the food supply is safe."

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.

Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com

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