080302 Congress Expected to Subpoena Meat Exec

Los Angeles -Members of a U.S. House oversight committee are expected to order the owner of the Southern California slaughterhouse involved the largest beef recall in the nation's history to testify on Capitol Hill.

Members of the Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations were expected to vote Wednesday to subpoena Hallmark/Westland Meat Co. owner Steve Mendell.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said Monday that Mendell would be required to testify on March 12. Mendell was a no-show at a meeting of the subcommittee last week.

Mendell did not immediately return a call for comment.

Federal officials recalled 143 million pounds of beef last month after the Humane Society of the United States released undercover video that showed workers at the Chino slaughterhouse shoving sick and crippled cows with forklifts and stunning them with electric prods to get them to stand.

A separate House committee heard testimony Tuesday from U.S. Department of Agriculture and public school officials relating to the recalled beef, which primarily went to the National School Lunch Program.

Kate Houston, deputy undersecretary for food nutrition and consumer services at the USDA, told members of the House Education and Labor Committee that her agency was still tracing about 6 1/2 million pounds of the recalled meat.

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