March 8, 2002
		Federal Government Not Safeguarding Against Mad Cow Disease A report from the General Accounting Office (GAO) released February 26 found that the federal government is not doing enough to ensure that mad cow disease is kept out of the United States. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said that the report was flawed. The report criticized the USDA for failing to test many high-risk animals that die in confinement, and also cited problems in the USDA and Food and Dtug Administration (FDA) import regulations. According to the GAO report, FDA record-keeping is so poor that the agency does not know to what extent industry is complying with the ban on using prohibited proteins in feed. Additionally, the report claims that the FDA has yet to identify and inspect all companies subject to the ban. Some feed companies that were found to be in non-compliance have not been re-inspected for two years or more, and in some cases no enforcement action was taken even though the businesses had failed several inspections. The GAO report recommended that the USDA and FDA strengthen enforcement of the feed ban, develop a strategy for incrreasing the inspection of imported products and alert consumers about items that contain central nervous system tissue. In a written statement, USDA Secretary Anne Veneman criticized the GAO, alleging that the report contained scientific and technical errors. She also asserted that the adinistration had taken "aggressive steps" to strengthen protections against the spread of mad cow disease.