A pandering PR stunt by an overgrown bureaucracy. (The USDA is the home of the rabbit inspectors, bravely protecting our children from risky pet bunnies.)
Seriously, if meat inspection goes by the wayside for any length of time; people will die, because it won't be anybody's job to make sure the meat is safe and the folks who run meat-packing plants don't like that they can't wring every last bit of profit out of every animal they buy.
In other words, what makes you think the USDA is not beholden to the commercial interests that it regulates, like every other government agency?
Look at the difference in Salmonella rates between the US and France for instance.
And yes, regulatory capture is an issue with the FDA, that has periodically resulted in scandals; but the meatpacking industry knows that without some obvious checks on their hygiene their industry as a whole is worse off. If one plant cuts too many corners and starts shipping moldy meat, the entire industries sales suffer; so it's in the meat companies interest to have someone policing defectors from good practices.
I repeat, it is a pandering PR stunt by an overgrown bureaucracy.
Blew their entire $155 billion budget on bunny inspections, did they? How many of their 100,000+ staff are bunny inspectors? All of them? Or just 90%? What a load of nonsense.
Your hysterical "talking point" style comments add nothing but noise.
I've also talked to several of the scientists for work, and they are quite the bright bunch and a lot do good research work.
However, I don't see why they couldn't leave the server up at least through October as I actually need to read a lot of their latest work.
Salmonella is just a government scare tactic to inflate federal budgets!