According to Shanken News Daily this morning, "The government shutdown is starting to affect the beverage alcohol industry, with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau halting label approval and permits for new production facilities. The shutdown will at least temporarily snarl as many as 400 label approvals a day, and the large numbers of craft breweries and distilleries currently in the planning stages will have to wait longer for permits. The bureau said, however, that its website will continue to be available and drinks companies will 'continue to be able to file electronic payments and returns for federal excise taxes and operational reports.'”
A note about comments to this post. I am normally quite lenient about comments, but I'm not going to let this post become a place for people to post general comments about the government shutdown. All such comments will be rejected.
ReplyDeleteThose estimates on the amount of label approvals from the TTB actually originally came from Beerpulse.com's Twitter.
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/beerpulse
400 label approvals each day? Wow, we are a drinking and smoking nation aren't we?
ReplyDeleteYou say the Govt. Shutdown is likely to cause interminable delays and difficulty in getting approvals for spirits labeling?
ReplyDeleteUh, how will anyone know the difference when that happens :)
I thought that all essential government functions would be maintained. I would include alcoholic beverage label approval among the essential functions.
ReplyDeleteFunny how they say the website will continue to be available, yet when you go to the Public COLA lookup site, its shut down....
ReplyDeleteUnless that office opens back up soon there's going to be a whole lotta K&L whisky stuck in Scotland.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't a problem of the Gov't being shut down, this is a problem of the Gov't not being shut down. Yes, label approval has stopped, but enforcement hasn't. If we really shut down the Gov't, then we could use whatever label we wish.
ReplyDelete