Judge Upholds USDA’s Decision to Withhold Beef Checkoff Records
After ten years of legal battles, a federal judge has ruled that the USDA does not have to release additional records about its audit of the Beef Checkoff program.
The ruling supports the USDA’s claim that the withheld documents are protected under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The Case and Ruling
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C., found that the USDA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) appropriately exempted the records from disclosure. The documents include financial reports, accounting ledgers, budgets, and vendor information.
“The Court is persuaded that USDA-OIG has met its burden of showing that the redacted information is generally treated as private by the owner of the records,” the judge stated.
The audit, conducted in 2013, reviewed the Beef Checkoff program, which collects funds from cattle producers to support research and marketing efforts.
Allegations had surfaced that the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), a recipient of Checkoff funds, improperly used the money for lobbying.
Although the audit highlighted weaknesses in the USDA’s oversight, critics argued it failed to expose deeper vulnerabilities.
The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM), a nonprofit critical of the program, claimed the audit omitted significant findings about the NCBA’s dominance over contracts from the Cattlemen’s Beef Board.
FOIA Challenges
OCM filed a FOIA request in 2014 seeking additional records, alleging discrepancies between the USDA audit and an independent firm’s findings. While the USDA released over 23,000 documents, it withheld others, citing FOIA exemptions.
The judge ruled the USDA acted lawfully, stating the withheld records contain sensitive business details. “In the hands of NCBA’s competitors or the public, NCBA has adequately shown that any of this information alone could foreseeably cause financial and competitive harm,” the ruling said.
OCM also argued that the USDA improperly collaborated with the Agricultural Marketing Service, but the court found no evidence of misconduct significant enough to invalidate FOIA protections.
This decision reinforces the USDA’s ability to keep certain audit records confidential while fueling ongoing debates about transparency in federally funded programs.
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