Department of Agriculture Should Have More Authority To Assess User Charges

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides a wide range of marketing and regulatory services. Marked differences exist in the degree to which recipients bear the costs of these services. As a result, certain sectors of the agricultural marketing industry are receiving preferential treatment at the taxpayers' expense.

If recipients were charged for all costs except those which can be readily identified with public benefits, the current inconsistencies and inequities would be eliminated and federal appropriations could be reduced. The Department could also realize substantial savings if it were to move to a system of periodic unannounced inspections at federally inspected meat and poultry processing plants and if the plants were required to have total in-plant quality control systems. Current inconsistencies and inequities in the Department's application of user charges are caused by differences in the legislative funding provisions covering individual programs and problems in implementing user charges under the so-called User Charge Statute (title V of the Independent Offices Appropriation Act) when no specific legislative authority exists.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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