Agriculture Department Prepares For Sequester Cuts
Posted at 1:45 p.m. on Feb. 21
The US Department of Agriculture announced that it “would furlough up to one-third of its workers if automatic spending cuts take effect at the end of the month…with effects ranging from a two-week shutdown of meat plants to summertime closure of hundreds of national forest campgrounds,” reports Reuters.
“Meat packers and processors cannot sell beef, pork, lamb and poultry meat without the USDA inspection seal. Inspection of meat for export or import also would stop during a furlough.”
“Up to 600,000 low-income women and infants could be cut from the so-called WIC program that provides supplemental food and nutrition education if the budget cuts last for the rest of this fiscal year.”
