WASHINGTON • Across-the-board cuts in government spending that took effect this month are inflicting pain in some sectors more than others.
Furloughs of federal employees that will begin in many agencies next month posed special difficulties for meat and poultry operations, where federal inspectors are required to be on hand during processing.
Congress and the White House have stuck to their guns on the sequester, refusing in most cases to allow the government to switch around accounts to avoid sending workers home without pay.
The Senate thus far has held firm on preserving specific Federal Aviation Administration cuts that could close air traffic control towers at small airports. This afternoon, senators also refused to allow White House tours to resume using money drawn from the National Heritage Partnership Program.
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But a short time ago, the Senate relented when it comes to furloughs in the Agriculture Department's Food Safety Inspection Service.
After protracted negotiations, the Senate by voice vote adopted an amendment to a spending bill that transfers $55 million from another agriculture account so as to assure that inspectors are not furloughed.
The amendment was co-sponsored by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.
Blunt said that the furloughs could have resulted in closings of some of Missouri's 148 meat and poultry facilities.
He added that under terms of the sequester, every meat, poultry and egg processing facility in the country could have been forced to shut down for two weeks between next month and October 1.
"That means high food prices and less work for the hardworking Americans who work in these facilities nationwide,' Blunt said in a statement.
Bill Lambrecht is Washington bureau chief for the Post-Dispatch and STLtoday.com. He covers politics, Congress and Missourians and Illinoisans in Washington.
