Feb 11, 2005

By Charles Abbott

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A procedural misstep by the Bush administration may require a delay in its plan to resume imports of some beef and cattle from Canada on March 7, a U.S. senator opposing the regulation said on Friday.

Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota said the U.S. Agriculture Department failed to notify the Senate of its trade regulation, despite being required by law to do so. Congress has the power to review major regulations and can overturn them.

"As far as the administration is concerned, we submitted it properly," said department spokeswoman Alisa Harrison. "We consider March 7 to still be the effective date."

Harrison gave to reporters copies of a receipt signed by Vice President Dick Cheney's office on Jan. 4 to accept the formal notice of the rule. The vice president's office routinely accepts filings on behalf of the Senate, she said.

It was unclear what happened afterward.

Clerical officials in the Senate could not say if they had received the notification. An Internet search of the Congressional Record found no reference to the regulation in Senate activities, although it was cited among "executive communications" in the House on Feb. 1.

The 1996 Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress the power to overturn federal regulations, is little known so there were few authorities on its workings.

According to the law, "before a rule can take effect, the federal agency promulgating such rule shall submit to each House of the Congress" a report that includes a copy of the rule. "It is our belief they cannot enact this rule until they go through the process required by law," Conrad said in a statement. "This is a good development."

Among the reasons USDA believed it had satisfied the law, Harrison said, was that the Senate recorded delivery of a regulation on the emerald ashborer, a tree pest, in the Jan. 6 Congressional Record. A courier delivered that document along with the Canada beef rule.

The United States halted Canadian cattle imports in late May 2003, following Canada's discovery of its first native case of mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Imports of some Canadian beef resumed a few months later.

At the close of 2004, USDA unveiled its plan to reopen the border to Canadian cattle less than 30 months old.

Conrad said the procedural problem was discovered when he and several other senators tried to file a resolution on Thursday to void the USDA rule.

A search of the Congressional Record by Internet on Friday found a reference to the USDA rule among "executive communications" to the House of Representatives but no similar mention in the Senate.

Earlier this week, the USDA bowed to pressure from U.S. meatpackers and altered the rule to bar imports of beef from Canadian cattle older than 30 months. Meatpackers had complained it would be unfair to continue barring older cattle from slaughter in U.S. plants while allowing Canada to ship beef from animals in that age group.

The USDA estimates around 1 million head of Canadian cattle would be sent to the United States annually, mostly for slaughter but some for fattening.

Ranch activists and their allies in Congress say they fear the risk of BSE among Canadian cattle. Canada has reported three cases since 2003 and the United States, one. But there also was concern that an influx of Canadian cattle will lower beef prices.

Reuters.com