'USDA’s livestock RFID federal advisory committees violated FACA'

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and its subagency, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, continue to violate federal law in their efforts to mandate radio frequency identification (RFID) eartags on livestock.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, has filed an opening brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit over these agencies’ violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

NCLA released the following statement: 'USDA and APHIS are well aware that the livestock industry opposes their efforts to mandate the use of high-cost RFID eartags. They created the CTWG and PTC as part of their strategy to circumvent that opposition and to make their astroturf efforts appear to be grassroots. Those efforts violated FACA, and the agencies should be held accountable. We are confident that the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals will recognize these agencies’ actions for what they were, enjoin them from engaging in such behavior, and prohibit them from using the unlawfully obtained committee work product in their future regulatory activities.'