The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the federal regulator of meat, poultry, and egg products, faces resource limitations that make it more difficult for the agency to ensure the safety of the food supply. New plans to cut costs could have severe consequences for public health and safety.
April 28 marked 
Next week, members of Congress from both chambers will meet to negotiate a comprehensive federal transportation bill. They will have to hash out the differences between two disparate extension bills and address controversial, anti-environment policy riders in the House version. The House bill would force the approval of the full Keystone XL pipeline and includes an industry-backed amendment that would prevent the federal government from issuing uniform safeguards for potentially toxic coal ash waste. Environmental groups call the coal ash amendment a gift to Big Coal and are urging Senate conferees and the Obama administration to ensure that it is not included in the final transportation bill.
Although the nation's premier consumer product regulator, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), has been crippled by budget cuts and staffing losses in the past, it has seen increases in its resources and responsibilities since 2008. However, advocates argue that a much larger influx is required to ensure that the CPSC has the resources it needs to protect Americans and eliminate dangerous products from the marketplace.
The so-called Regulatory Freeze for Jobs Act,