SAFE Act of 2023

12/18/2023, 3:45 PM

Safe American Food Exports Act of 2023 or the SAFE Act of 2023

This bill allows the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to preemptively negotiate regional export ban agreements for known animal disease threats that apply only to areas affected by animal disease outbreaks. These agreements enable the continuation of exports from areas not affected by an outbreak.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and the Foreign Agricultural Service may negotiate the regionalization agreements with countries that have key export markets for any animal or article from the United States.

In addition, USDA must promulgate a regulation requiring that, within three days of removing any language from the FSIS Import and Export Library, FSIS notify each state department of agriculture, each lead agency for animal disease, and any entity that petitioned for the inclusion of that language. (The FSIS library provides country and product specific information for (1) meat and poultry exports, and (2) products eligible for import to the United States.)

Congress
118

Number
S - 901

Introduced on
2023-03-21

# Amendments
0

Sponsors
+5

Cosponsors
+5

Variations and Revisions

3/21/2023

Status of Legislation

Bill Introduced
Introduced to House
House to Vote
Introduced to Senate
Senate to Vote

Purpose and Summary

Safe American Food Exports Act of 2023 or the SAFE Act of 2023

This bill allows the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to preemptively negotiate regional export ban agreements for known animal disease threats that apply only to areas affected by animal disease outbreaks. These agreements enable the continuation of exports from areas not affected by an outbreak.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), and the Foreign Agricultural Service may negotiate the regionalization agreements with countries that have key export markets for any animal or article from the United States.

In addition, USDA must promulgate a regulation requiring that, within three days of removing any language from the FSIS Import and Export Library, FSIS notify each state department of agriculture, each lead agency for animal disease, and any entity that petitioned for the inclusion of that language. (The FSIS library provides country and product specific information for (1) meat and poultry exports, and (2) products eligible for import to the United States.)

Alternative Names
Official Title as IntroducedA bill to amend the Animal Health Protection Act to improve the prevention of the spread of animal diseases, and for other purposes.

Policy Areas
Agriculture and Food

Comments

Recent Activity

Latest Summary2/27/2024

Safe American Food Exports Act of 2023 or the SAFE Act of 2023

This bill allows the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to preemptively negotiate regional export ban agreements for known animal disease threats that apply only to areas ...


Latest Action3/21/2023
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.