The law took safety oversight of catfish and other ray-finned fish away from the Food and Drug Administration and gave that authority to the Agriculture Department, which does more frequent inspections. Republican Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and other critics have said the added regulation is wasteful and solely intended to raise a new, higher hurdle for catfish imports from Vietnam and other nations. Besides the new catfish inspections, USDA has traditionally only been responsible for meat, poultry and processed eggs.