The American Meat Institute said today its members are “disappointed” that the Senate appropriations bill to fund the government through September 30 did not include any specific authority for the Agriculture Department to avoid furloughs for meat inspectors.

“We are disappointed that language to specifically grant flexibility was not included,” said an AMI spokeswoman in an email.

“As you can imagine, we are eager to see a swift resolution to this issue that will prevent furloughs of meat and poultry inspectors and work stoppages in our plants.”

The American Meat Institute represents slaughterhouses and meat processors.

Neither Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., nor ranking member Richard Shelby, R-Ala., mentioned the meat inspector furloughs in their statements today.

Mikulski had proposed providing Cabinet secretaries with the power to move money among accounts to deal with the sequester, but opposition from House Republicans forced her to abandon that proposal in order to write a bill to which both the House and Senate can agree.

Shelby said today, “This this bill will provide more flexibility for the remainder of the year so that government agencies can deal with the reality of the sequester which remains fully in place.”

But he also noted that the sequester cuts remain in place.

Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and Pat Roberts, R-Kan., have said that Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack should have found some way to avoid the furloughs of the meat inspectors, but Vilsack has said repeatedly that the way Congress wrote the sequester bill, he cannot move money within the USDA budget to avoid the furloughs.

Vilsack has said, however, that the furloughs will not begin until later in the summer.