31.   The House Appropriations Committee has already voted to shelve the new regulations and order the Agriculture Department to negotiate new rules with the meat industry.

32.   The meat industry argues that the Agriculture Department lacks the power to regulate bacteria in meat.

33.   The meat industry had complained that the USDA was layering new rules on top of old ones.

34.   The meat industry has long sought approval of irradiation for ground beef, which is the source of the greatest contamination in beef products.

35.   The meat industry has shrunk drastically in recent years, leaving behind its distinctive cold storage houses with their long, deep canopies over sidewalk loading platforms.

36.   The meat industry must still obtain permission to irradiate beef from the FDA, which considers it an additive.

37.   The meat industry maintains that it is impossible to make beef and poultry entirely pathogen-free.

38.   The meat industry objected to that wording so strongly that it was never included again.

39.   The meat industry, however, is a less complimentary.

40.   The meat industry called mandatory testing heavy-handed government meddling that would do little to improve food safety.