Tom Vilsack (USDA/Bob Nichols)

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today endorsed a measure introduced by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., that would avoid furloughs for meat inspectors this summer.

Vilsack’s endorsement came at a National Agriculture Day speech to the Agribusiness Club as the Senate continued consideration of the continuing resolution to fund the government through September 30. The Blunt-Pryor measure could be attached to that bill.

Vilsack said in his speech that Blunt’s and Pryor’s decision to offer the amendment is an acknowledgment that he has been correct all along in saying that he has no choice but to furlough the inspectors under the Budget Control Act.

Republicans initially said that Vilsack should transfer funds from other USDA accounts to keep the inspectors on the job, but the secretary said the Budget Control Act is written so tightly he does not have that flexibility.

Republicans then complained that Vilsack had not asked for flexibility to transfer funds.

“I hope that gets done,” Vilsack said. If it isn’t done by July, he added, there will be furloughs “because we don’t have another option.”

“This is not a bluff, this is not make believe, this is real,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Senate was in a quorum call because senators had not reached agreement on bringing up amendments. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he believed that the Blunt-Pryor amendment might come up later today. Aides said that the consideration of the continuing resolution could drag on until Thursday.

After the speech, Vilsack noted to reporters that the Pryor-Blunt amendment would not give him flexibility to move money from one account to another, but would transfer $55 million to the Food Safety and Inspection Service from one-time funding for school equipment grants and deferred maintenance on buildings and facilities at USDA.

Pryor and Blunt have said that the Congress should agree to the measure because the furloughs would lead to the closure of nearly 6,300 food inspection facilities and that 500,000 industry workers would lose nearly $400 million in wages.

Vilsack also said he hopes to advance a new system of poultry slaughter so that it would create efficiencies that would help avoid furloughs in the future. Some labor and consumer groups have opposed the new system on the grounds that the high production line speeds it includes could hurt workers and create food safety problems.