The Agriculture Department has decided not to take action against a former agency official who blocked investigations into predatory pricing in the nation's $120 billion livestock trade.
Gross mismanagement, not criminal conduct, by JoAnn Waterfield is to blame for several years of obstruction, department Inspector General Phyllis Fong told the Senate Agriculture Committee on Thursday.
“I'm not sure what further action could be taken,” said Fong, who released an audit on the problems in January. “What we found I guess we would best characterize as tremendous mismanagement.”
There was “no indication of criminal conduct,” Fong added.
So, the USDA investigated itself and decided they didn't do anything wrong and have reported so to congress. Does this seem a little fishy to anyone else out there? It's kind of like letting the inmates run the prison any way they want. Shouldn't the Justice Department be handling the investigation to see if there is any wrongdoing?
At least some Senators are talking about the issue.
"It is totally unacceptable of our government to conduct business in this way," Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said at a Thursday hearing. He threatened to call USDA officials back up to Capitol Hill again if improvements aren't made.
The Senate committee called the Thursday hearing to demand answers from the USDA over a recent Inspector General report charging that officials had blocked investigations into anti-competitive activities in livestock and poultry markets.
The Inspector General report laid much of the blame on JoAnn Waterfield, who resigned her post as a USDA Deputy Administrator in December, but Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said he also held higher-ranking officials accountable.
"I just wonder how Ms. Waterfield got by with not doing anything all this time or covering things up," Harkin told reporters. "What level did this go to? I don't know."
USDA's Inspector General Phyllis Fong said at the Thursday hearing that her office's investigation stayed within the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, or GIPSA, a USDA agency.
I think a little more than a threat to "call USDA officials back up to Capitol Hill again if improvements aren't made" is needed. Like maybe a true criminal investigation into the activities in the USDA and how the meat packers control this branch of government. It will never happen though, to many big money Agribusiness companies have their hands in the USDA and Congresses pockets and it will all get stalled.
One interesting thing though, I haven't heard anything on this issue from our Montana Congressional delegation or the Democrats that wish to run against them. I guess the votes of cattle ranchers in the state of Montana just aren't important to any of them. I will keep that in mind.
If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means...would bring terrible retribution. Louis Dembitz Brandeis
