An amendment that would have reestablished USDA horsemeat inspections on a fee-for-service basis failed to become part of the 2012 U.S. House of Representatives’ Agricultural Appropriations Act this week when the bill sponsor withdrew it.

Prior to 2005, USDA personnel carried out horsemeat food safety inspections at U.S. horse processing plants. In 2005 Congress voted to strip the USDA of funding for horsemeat inspections. USDA personnel continued to carry out those inspections on a fee-for-service basis until 2007 when a federal court judge ruled against the arrangement. The combination of the funding prohibition and the court decision resulted in the decline of the U.S. horse processing industry.

However, language stripping the USDA of funding for horsemeat inspections did not appear in the original House Agricultural Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2012. In response, Virginia Congressman Jim Moran introduced an amendment prohibiting the use of federal revenue to pay the salaries or expenses of USDA personnel to conduct horsemeat inspections at horse processing plants located in the U.S. On May 31 House Appropriations Committee members passed the Moran amendment.

On June 15 U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming introduced an amendment to the Agricultural Appropriations bill that would have allowed the USDA to perform horsemeat inspections at U.S.-based horse processing plants on a fee-for-service basis. However, Lummis withdrew that amendment