AMI sends Ag Secretary Vilsack a response to GIPSA `Misconception and Explanation’ doc

02-08-2010 | Home | News

AMI President J. Patrick Boyle sent Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack a detailed response to the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) ‘Misconception and Explanation’ document issued July 26 when GIPSA announced that it would extend by 90 days the comment deadline for its undue preferences rule.

Boyle said that the decision to extend the comment period is appreciated, especially since the original request for an extension was denied in a July letter from GIPSA Administrator J. Dudley Butler.© However, he called the release of the “Misconception and Explanation” document an “unprecedented step in the midst of a notice and comment rulemaking procedure.”

“In some ‘Misconceptions’ the department fails to characterize accurately the nature of significant concerns raised by the proposal,” he wrote.© “Moreover, in a seeming attempt to mollify critics and minimize adverse impacts, some ‘USDA Explanations’ actually contradict the plain language of the proposed rule.”

He said that AMI’s analysis details the “errors and misrepresentations in the department’s document.”©

To read the response document, click here.© http://tinyurl.com/2c2fxh2 . ©To read AMI’s letter to Vilsack, click here.© http://tinyurl.com/28n8sdx

Source: AMI