Obama administration to consider rolling furloughs to keep meat industry running
The Obama Administration may institute a rolling furlough plan, which would keep meat and poultry plants open in spite of the threatened March 1 budget cuts. Previously, it was thought that the USDA would furlough all of its meat inspectors for two weeks, effectively shutting the meat industry and leading to meat shortages and higher prices.
"It appears now it's a rolling furlough," Texas Republican Michael Conaway, chairman of a House Agriculture subcommittee, told reporters. "No one plant would be shut down."