In the video, an employee at Bushways Packing Inc. in Grand Isle tries to skin alive a days-old calf in front of an alleged USDA inspector, among other abuses. A Humane Society investigator took the video while employed undercover at the slaughterhouse.

“This government official tells the worker, on hidden camera, that if another USDA inspector saw this, the plant would be shut down, but he allows the abuse to continue,” the Humane Society said in a news release.

Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack called the abuse “deplorable” and “callous.” He said employees are obligated to report noncompliant behavior.
Both USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and inspector general are investigating.

Happy Birthday, Smokey!

Smokey Bear has been preaching the dangers of forest fires since Aug. 9, 1944. His trademark catchphrase, “Only you can prevent wildfires,” is one of the longest running public service announcement campaigns in U.S. history.

His enduring message certainly has played a major role in helping reduce forest fires. Since 1944, the number of acres lost annually to forest fires has dropped from about 22 million to 6.5 million, the Forest Service says.  However, there’s still plenty of work for Smokey Bear to do. Many Americans believe that lightning starts most wildfires, while in reality 9 out of 10 wildfires nationwide are started by humans. Most often, forest fires are caused by people who leave campfires unattended, burn trash on windy days and carelessly discard cigarettes and charcoal.

To mark the occasion, the Forest Service on Monday will release a new illustrated story book, written in both English and Spanish, that is aimed at introducing the iconic figure and his fire prevention message to a new generation of American children.

Smokey Bear will be on hand for the festivities, at the Agriculture Department’s Whitten Building in Washington, and will even be cutting his birthday cake, the Forest Service tells us. We can only guess what he will be wishing for as he blows out his candles.

A series of alarmist headlines posted at the top of the Drudge Report home page lists details on some of the purchases Agriculture has made through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The headlines, which link to summaries of contracts on the Recovery.gov website, seem to suggest that Agriculture is wasting stimulus money on groceries — and worse, getting overcharged.

The headlines indicate that Agriculture awarded contracts of nearly $16.8 million for canned pork, $1.6 million for mozzarella cheese and $1.2 million for two pounds of frozen sliced ham.

In response, Vilsack issued a statement this morning explaining that the purchases are for large amounts of food items being delivered to food banks, soup kitchens and food pantries to help feed those who have been hardest hit by the economic recession. Agriculture received $100 million through the Recovery Act for the purchases.

The references to ‘2 pound frozen ham sliced’ are to the sizes of the packaging. Press reports suggesting that the Recovery Act spent $1.191 million to buy ‘2 pounds of ham’ are wrong. In fact, the contract in question purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191m, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound. In terms of the dairy purchase referenced, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) purchased 837,936 pounds of mozzarella cheese and 4,039,200 pounds of processed cheese.

Vilsack goes on to say that the purchases do provide a boost to the economy, by helping farmers and ranchers who produce the food, food retailers and those working for manufacturing and transportation companies.

Winners of the 2009 White House Closing the Circle Awards — handed out Wednesday during the middle of the three-day 2009 Federal Environmental Symposium East in Bethesda, Md. –  are demonstrating best practices in areas such as recycling, green purchasing and fuel conservation.

The big winner was the Air Force, which received four awards for initiatives under way at local bases and headquarters. The Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in Denver was the biggest individual winner, taking home two awards.

A complete list of the winners — along with some of their accomplishments — is after the jump.

Environmental management systems

Defense Supply Center, Richmond, Va.
Why it won: Increased number of alternative fuel vehicles, cut energy use in half by replacing florescent lights, contracted for a greenhouse gas emissions study

Federal Aviation Administration’s Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, Oklahoma City, Okla.
Why it won: Reduced non-hazardous industrial waste by recycling cardboard, cut gasoline use by purchasing electric vehicles and driving less, cut water consumption

Recycling

Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas
Why it won: Diverted more than 8,000 tons of solid waste in 2008 through recycling and reuse programs, saving base more than $1 million

General Services Administration’s National Capital Region, Washington, D.C.
Why it won: Recycled 8,400 tons of paper and 283 tons of cans and bottles in 2008, saving 27,300 cubic yards of landfill space

Alternative fuel and fuel conservation in transportation

Air Force’s Material Support Division, Washington, D.C.
Why it won: Purchased more than 1,000 low speed electric vehicles in 2008 and opened four new E-85 refueling stations

Treasury Department, Washington, D.C.
Why it won: Last year, cut overall fuel use by 2.6 percent, increased alternative fuel use by 1.8 percent, reduced total miles driven by 3.1 percent and cut number of vehicles by 4 percent

Water/pollution prevention

Army’s Fort Hood, Texas
Why it won: Established a community program for recycling electronics at the base, eliminating more than 320,000 pounds of electronic waste from entering landfills, and saved $150,000 by collecting used fuel and oil for recycling

Energy Department’s Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Why it won: Saved $277,000 in operating expenses by replacing Freon with non-ozone depleting solvent for chip cleaning operations and saved $800,000 in disposal costs by developing new crusher operation for drums contaminated from radioactive waste

Green purchasing

Robins Air Force Base, Ga.
Why it won: Purchased $610,000 in green products last year and saved $160,000 by using a paint gun filtration system for F-15 aircraft that reduces waste solvent usage by 83 percent

U.S. Postal Service, Washington, D.C.
Why it won: Rolled out new agencywide green purchasing plan and purchased about $90 million in recycled or environmentally preferable products in 2008

Electronics stewardship

Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 8 Office, Denver, Colo.
Why it won: Recycles 100 percent of non-reusable electronic equipment, which in 2008 saved 2.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity, cut 190,000 kilograms of greenhouse gases and reduced 13,400 kilograms of solid waste

Sustainable design/green buildings

Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.
Why it won: Air Force Weather Agency headquarters building earned the Air Force’s first gold rating from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program

Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 8 Office, Denver, Colo.
Why it won: New regional headquarters building was certified gold by LEED by incorporating features such as a vegetative roof and an under-floor air distribution system

Sowing the Seeds for Change innovation award

Forest Service Deer River Ranger District, Chippewa National Forest, Minn.
Why it won: Made a reality television program to demonstrate how employees can work together to green their operations, generating ideas that have saved $32,000 to date

National Institutes of Health Office of Research Facilities, Bethesda, Md.
Why it won: Developed a protocol for safely handling hazardous materials during laboratory demolition projects that allows hazardous materials to be captured and non-hazardous materials to be recycled

The highlights — or lowlights, depending on your view:

• Nearly $200 million at the Interior Department by cutting programs to clean up abandoned coal mines that have already been cleaned up.
• Nearly $20 million by modernizing programs and streamlining bureaucracy at the Agriculture Department.
• Tens of millions of dollars by cutting an Education Department student mentoring program whose mission is being carrried out by 100 other programs in 13 other agencies.
• Nearly $50 billion by cutting out benefits to citizens who aren’t entitled to them and closing tax loopholes to businesses.

Additionally, Obama said the budget would save billions by ending no-bid contracts in Iraq, ending tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas and rolling back tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

The $2 trillion is just what has been identified during the first 30 days that the administration has been in office, Obama said. Further cuts will be proposed as part of the full budget Obama said will be released this Spring.

First, I think it underscores the need to merge FDA’s food safety functions with those of the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service — in other words, creating a single food regulator. 

Why? We’ve learned that USDA bought peanuts from PCA and used them for school lunch programs. In fact, it was one of the company’s two biggest customers. And it regularly sent inspectors to review records at PCA’s processing facility. But so did the FDA, the agency in charge of regulating peanut products.

So we had two federal agencies inspecting the same facility — a consequence of our splintered regulatory system.

What’s more upsetting, though, is that neither agency prevented this outbreak. The FDA found problems at the PCA plant in 2001 — among them, that plant workers used insecticides near food-processing equipment — but it was eight years before the agency could do another inspection.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The agency lost more than 1,000 employees in the last decade. It receives about 25 percent of the nation’s food safety budget, and regulates 80 percent of its food supply. (The Agriculture Department visited PCA more often, but the agency is also understaffed and underfunded, relative to its workload.)

So if the Obama administration is serious about food safety reform, it needs to provide a bigger budget and better staffing.

He said during a teleconference earlier today:

It is important to me that the USDA be also a place of a modern workforce and a modern workplace. We’ll be focusing on IT improvements, process improvements and an empowered and diverse workforce to make that happen.”

I later asked Vilsack to expand on what he meant. He said the department needs to consolidate and modernize its aging and divergent IT systems for three reasons:

1. To improve citizen services. Vilsack noted the department doesn’t have a Web-based system that is easily accessible to farmers, ranchers and others who rely on the programs USDA runs. 
2. To collect better data. If the department is going to prove it is spending taxpayer dollars wisely, the department has to be able to document results accurately. Doing this is difficult with outdated technology, he said. 
3. To improve efficiency. With the work force being asked to do more and more, employees need the right tools to do their jobs, he said.

Vilsack hopes Congress will include money to modernize IT systems at the department in the stimulus bill.

Regarding the work force, Vilsack noted that 58 percent of department employees were over the age of 45, meaning the department is facing a brain drain. The department needs to think strategically about hiring to replace these workers as they retire. It also needs to address civil rights issues that have faced the department by ensuring its staff reflects the people it works to assist, he said.

It’s going to be important for us to have a strategy in place to make sure that we have a modern workforce and a workforce that is diverse, that reflects the America of today.

The Senate voted by voice vote just before 4 p.m. today to confirm the following seven nominees: Steven Chu for Energy, Arne Duncan for Education, Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security, Peter Orszag for director of the Office of Management and Budget, Ken Salazar for Interior, Eric Shinseki for Veterans Affairs and Tom Vilsak for Agriculture.

His Cabinet already included Robert Gates, whom Obama asked to stay on as Defense secretary.

But things aren’t moving so quickly for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s secretary of state nomination. After her smooth hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, many expected Clinton to be confirmed today.

Enter Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who had questioned donations made by foreign groups and individuals to the foundation run by Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton. He threatened a filibuster and said he was not convinced steps she outlined to prevent conflicts of interest between herself and potential donors were enough, and that was enough to stall Clinton’s vote for at least a day.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., made it clear on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon he had little patience for Cornyn’s moves. He announced the scheduling of a three-hour executive session of the Senate Wednesday to discuss Clinton’s confirmation and scheduled a roll call vote at 3 p.m. Wednesday.

During today’s confirmation hearing for former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, President-elect Barack Obama’s pick to head the Agriculture Department, the Iowa Democrat said he will use his position as chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee to address the biobased procurement requirement, which Harkin inserted into the 2002 Farm Bill.

Specifically, Harkin said he would call every Cabinet secretary before the committee to ask them about the so-called BioPreferred Program, which is managed by the Agriculture Department.

Vilsack said he would make sure to spread the word to all of his potential colleagues, but told Harkin it would probably take awhile for most to get up to speed on the issue.

“I would ask you to give me a couple months to let them know about this before you call them up here,” Vilsack said.

“Done,” Harkin replied.