21 U.S.C. § 679a — Safe Meat and Poultry Inspection Panel

(a) Establishment. The Department of Agriculture has a permanent advisory panel called the Safe Meat and Poultry Inspection Panel, or the panel. (b) Duties. (1) Review and evaluation. When the panel considers necessary, it must review and evaluate the adequacy, need, safety, cost-effectiveness, and scientific merit of: (A) inspection procedures and the work rules and worker relations involving Federal employees at plants inspected under this chapter; (B) informal petitions or proposals to change those plants’ inspection procedures, processes, or techniques; (C) formal changes to meat-inspection regulations under this chapter, whether in notice, proposed, or final form; and (D) other matters the Secretary refers to it about the quality or effectiveness of a safe, cost-effective meat-inspection system under this chapter. (2) Reports. (A) The panel must give the Secretary a report on each review and evaluation, with recommendations it considers suitable. (B) A report about a formal regulation change must be made within the deadline for formal comments on that change. (C) Every report to the Secretary must be published in the Federal Register. (c) Secretarial response. Within 90 days after a panel report is published, the Secretary must publish in the Federal Register any response the Secretary is required to make. (d) Composition. The panel has 7 members. At least 5 must be professionals in food, meat, or poultry science. The Secretary appoints them, for staggered terms of no more than 3 years, from nominations from the National Institutes of Health and the Federation of American Societies of Food Animal Science, based on the nominees’ professional qualifications. (e) Nominations. (1) For the first panel, the Secretary must ask each of those two organizations for 6 nominees. (2) For a later vacancy, the Secretary must ask each for 2 nominees. (3)(A) Each nominee must have a public-health background and scientific expertise in food, meat, poultry, or veterinary science. (B) Before finishing selection, the Secretary may require nominees to provide needed information. (4) If a list is unsatisfactory, the Secretary may ask the nominating organization for another list. (f) Travel expenses. A panel member away from home or the regular workplace while serving the panel receives travel expenses, including a daily subsistence allowance, at the rate allowed to someone intermittently employed in Government service under 5 U.S.C. § 5703. (g) Conflicts of interest. The Secretary must issue regulations about panel members’ conflicts of interest. (h) Exemption. Chapter 10 of title 5 and title XVIII of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. § 2281 and following) do not apply to the panel. (i) Funding. From funds available for this chapter and the Poultry Products Inspection Act, the Secretary must set aside the amounts needed to carry out this section.