One week before President Trump signed an executive order to reopen meat processing and packing plants, the industry’s leading trade group gave a draft version to executives at the Department of Agriculture–with much of the language being used in Trump’s order, USA Today reports.

While it’s not unusual for lobbyists to recommend language or policies that end up in executive orders or even laws, the speed with which this executive order was drafted and signed, as well as the fact that it dealt with reopening an industry in the midst of a pandemic, draws new light onto the outsized influence specific trade groups have on public health. 

Trump’s order, which included language from the North American Meat Institute, caused a great deal of confusion about if the plants were still required to follow local regulations–confusion that was desired to allow the plants to ignore local laws.

“The industry ran to the White House as meat and poultry workers all across the country were getting sick and dying to say, ‘Let us stay open and have USDA intimidate health departments so they can’t close us down because our profits are more important than workers’ health and community’s health,’” Debbie Berkowitz, who spent six years as chief of staff and senior policy adviser at OSHA and is director of the National Employment Law Project’s worker health and safety program, told USA Today.

Meatpacking plants become hotspots for the spread of the coronavirus because the close-quarters of the work environment.  The Washington Post identified 200 people who died after contracting coronavirus at meat packing plants, with thousands of other infected.