A bombshell report by the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis has exposed cooperation between meat-packing officials and Trump allies to keep food-processing plants open during the early phases of the pandemic despite the known risks it posed to workers. While perpetuating baseless fears that meat shortages threatened the country (The Guardian reports that exports to China actually hit a record high), meat execs lobbied USDA officials who in turn lobbied Vice President Mike Pence to declare the industry “critical infrastructure” so they could remain open. President Trump then authorized an executive order, drafted by the legal teams of meatpackers, to keep them open. The order was “particularly egregious considering that the nation’s meat supply was not actually at risk,” the subcommittee wrote. The report, titled Now to Get Rid of Those Pesky Health Departments!, is a direct quote an industry lobbyist made to a meat packing execs about reducing safety measures inside plants.