On Tuesday, President Trump signed an executive order to “ensure the continued supply of meat and poultry” after warnings from food executives that the nation faces a potential meat shortage:
It's official.
President Trump has signed the executive order using the Defense Production Act to order meat-processing plants to stay open. EO says Secretary of Agriculture shall use the authority to "ensure the continued supply of meat and poultry."
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) April 29, 2020
And this order was instantly interpreted to mean that the president was ordering plants to stay open and put workers at risk from coronavirus:
Trump is ordering meat-packing plants to stay open, but won’t enforce worker safety standards. Beef more important than the people who pack it.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) April 29, 2020
Now, it’s true that thousands of meat-packing workers are infected with COVID-19, President Trump did not order plants to stay open:
Thousands of meat-packing workers are infected with Covid-19 and are dying. #Trump ordered the plants to re-open, without testing ANY of the workers. CDC has lost its teeth, gives no guidance, and lets the owners #getawaywithmurder.
Truth? Those workers mean nothing to them.— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) April 29, 2020
Here’s University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck with the fact check: “Nothing in the text of the Order claims any power to force plants to ‘stay open,’ and nothing in the statutory sections on which the Order purports to rely delegates such authority.”
I don't mean to cause trouble, but I think these headlines are getting it wrong.
Nothing in the text of the Order claims any power to force plants to "stay open," and nothing in the statutory sections on which the Order purports to rely delegates such authority.
Here's why: https://t.co/1b4nmAi68i
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) April 29, 2020
Here’s what’s really been ordered:
The Order's big move is to designate meat and poultry as "strategic materials" under the Defense Production Act. Fair enough. But all it *authorizes* is for the Secretary of Agriculture to use his authority under DPA § 101.
But DPA § 101 says nothing about forced openings…
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) April 29, 2020
Instead, DPA § 101 (50 U.S.C. § 4511) is just about allocation of federal resources and priority for federal contracts. There's no authority under this provision to *force* private businesses to do anything other than prioritize federal contracts. https://t.co/RF2uOBH8R8
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) April 29, 2020
To be sure, the Order also delegates to the Secretary the authority to implement the more coercive provisions in Chapter III of the DPA (50 U.S.C. §§ 4554–60), but the Order does not *direct* the Secretary to do so—and none of *those* provisions include compelled openings either.
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) April 29, 2020
All of this is to say that, once again, we're buying into how the White House is *describing* the President's actions rather than carefully parsing the actions *themselves.* Putting aside the sensational and alarming headlines, this EO actually seems fairly uncontroversial.
/end
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) April 29, 2020
Link to the order here:
(P.S. Here's a link to the Executive Order. The operative provision is section 2.)https://t.co/pbgT5qvOvA pic.twitter.com/aF01ZPfNLl
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) April 29, 2020
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Related:
Cancel the panic? Must-read thread counters Tyson's claim that 'the food supply chain is breaking' https://t.co/DUDZr3yUPQ
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 28, 2020