Federal Prison Pork Ban Revoked

Just one week after the federal Bureau of Prisons banned pork products from its 122 prisons, pork roast will return to the dinner lines, officials said Friday.

The reversal came just hours after Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who represents the farm-strong state of Iowa, wrote to complain about the decision.

"The pork industry is responsible for 547,800 jobs, which creates $22.3 billion in personal incomes and contributes $39 billion to the gross domestic product," Grassley wrote to Bureau of Prisons Director Charles E. Samuels, Jr., reports The Washington Post, complaining that the "unprecedented" decision to take away pork could harm Americans employed in the industry.

Grassley chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees federal prisons, and said he was skeptical of claims made by a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons, who said a survey showed pork was the inmates' lowest-rated food.

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