New USDA Guide Says NAIS Voluntary
by Karin Bergener, Judith McGeary & Randy Givens

The latest buzz is that the NAIS is voluntary. Whoo hoo!

Not so fast!

This rumor is based on statements made by USDA Under Secretary Bruce Knight, who is in charge of NAIS. But USDA’s newest plan for NAIS makes clear what “voluntary” means. The new USDA plan for implementing the NAIS is National Animal Identification System (NAIS): A User Guide and Additional Information Resources issued on November 22, 2006. This document claims to replace prior plans, but as we’ll see, the original Draft Strategic Plan, with its goal of implementation by 2009, is alive and well. USDA’s new document is written to convince us NAIS is a good idea, it will be voluntary, and we have nothing to worry about. USDA is clearly responding to complaints about NAIS, and has found a new way to reach the same end result.

Not a Final Document
The User Guide is clearly marked “draft.” A draft is not the final plan and is subject to change, not necessarily for the better. The original documents published in 2005 were marked “draft” as well, and as we’ve seen, USDA changes them regularly. This User Guide is the third document published in 2006 that tries to explain NAIS.

Federal agencies are supposed to base their rules on law, but the USDA has created and implemented this massive program without an underlying statute. The plan is written by bureaucrats at USDA, not by Congress, and can be changed by those bureaucrats at will.

The User Guide states that it replaces all previous USDA plans for NAIS. But the same people wrote all of the documents, therefore the previous documents are still relevant to revealing how these people think and their ultimate goals.

In USDA’s announcement of funding for states’ implementation of NAIS in 2007, USDA said that states’ plans must outline how they will meet the timeline from the “draft strategic plan,” a clear reference to the original plan document, as no other USDA NAIS document has the same name. As a practical matter, the User Guide cannot replace all previous documents, because it doesn’t cover their subjects, such as technical requirements for Animal Identification Number (AIN) tags or databases. The User Guide is not written on a blank slate, but is part of an ongoing program.

• Mandatory or Voluntary?
• What are the costs?
• Alleged Benefits

Karin Bergener is an attorney in Freedom, Ohio. Judith McGeary is an attorney in Austin, Texas. Randy Givens of Paige, Texas, is a retired Army colonel. All three are livestock owners and cofounders of Liberty Ark Coalition established to defeat NAIS. Their article appeared in the Winter 2007 issue of Rural Heritage.