Look for Pay-to-Play Corruption in Trump Treatment of JBS/Pilgrim's Pride

As your constituent, I urge you to launch a comprehensive congressional investigation into apparent pay-to-play conduct involving Pilgrim's Pride—a subsidiary of Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS—and the Trump administration that has endangered worker safety. In early 2025, JBS and Pilgrim's Pride donated $5 million to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, the largest recorded single gift to the inauguration fund. Following this substantial contribution, the administration granted Pilgrim's Pride regulatory approvals and waivers that directly enabled increased line speeds in poultry processing facilities—a change that poses severe safety risks to workers. Faster processing lines have been scientifically linked to increased injury rates, repetitive strain injuries, chemical exposures, and inadequate time for workers to maintain safe practices. By approving production speed waivers and expediting regulatory compliance steps, the administration appears to have prioritized corporate profits over worker safety in direct exchange for donations. This pattern reflects JBS's troubling history. The company's owners, the Batista brothers, were jailed in Brazil after admitting to bribing roughly 1,800 politicians and government inspectors to influence judicial and regulatory outcomes. Their willingness to corrupt government officials abroad suggests a similar playbook may be operating here. I urge Congress to take the following investigative steps: Subpoena all communications between Trump administration officials and JBS/Pilgrim's Pride executives regarding the inaugural donation and subsequent regulatory decisions affecting line speeds and worker safety standards. Investigate the approval process for production speed waivers to determine whether they received expedited treatment or bypassed normal safety review procedures. Examine OSHA coordination with the administration to establish whether worker safety concerns were deprioritized in favor of corporate interests. Request independent worker safety audits of Pilgrim's Pride facilities operating under the new speed parameters to document injury and illness rates. This investigation is essential to protect poultry workers from preventable harm and restore integrity to our regulatory system.