Following the 2004 mad cow scare, the NAIS, a voluntary registry to track food animals, was created in case of another outbreak. The Agriculture Committee's Farm Bill includes a provision in Section 10305 of Title X (Livestock), added during markup, that would exempt information from this system from disclosure in response to any FOIA requests. The provision would also impose criminal sanctions on anyone who does disclose information from the system. Only the Secretary of Agriculture would have the authority to share the information with the owner of the farm animal, the state agriculture department, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and affected foreign governments. Despite the clear public interest in information about food safety, these provisions would block the public from ever having access to these records.
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, added the provision to bill and defended it as being necessary to ensure the cooperation of farmers in the voluntary program. Open government advocates, on the other hand, requested in a letter to the Senate that the provision be removed and claimed that the provision would "create an unnecessary bar to public disclosure." Harkin staff are reportedly working on "mutually agreeable language that will reassure producers and allow our government to be transparent and open."
The Senate was not able to consider the bill before the Thanksgiving recess, but the legislation may be voted on in December before the close of session.