Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agency Appropriations Act, 2027

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FLETCHER. Madam Chair, I thank Ranking Member Bishop for yielding.

Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to this bill and to object that House Republicans on the Rules Committee failed to include the amendment that I offered to increase and decrease funding for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service by $10 million to focus on the threat of New World screwworm.

Yesterday, we learned that the New World screwworm has been found in Texas.

This is something that Texans have been worrying about and have been warning Washington about for nearly 2 years. This flesh-eating parasite, previously eradicated from the United States, poses a huge threat to our cattle, and Texas is home to the largest cattle population in the country. There are more than 12 million cattle, and it is a nearly a $15-billion cattle industry.

We have not seen a screwworm outbreak since the 1970s. It cost the United States hundreds of millions of dollars and took years to eradicate and contain.

An outbreak today will be devastating to U.S. livestock producers and drive up already high costs for beef at the grocery stores that all Americans will see.

Now, for decades, our country has remained relatively pest-free thanks to the hard work of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which is tasked with eradicating and keeping dangers like screwworm at bay.

Last March, though, the Trump administration fired more than 15,000 USDA employees, including more than 1,300 staff at the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, leaving our farmers and ranchers vulnerable.

Plus, the DOGE team, in their infinite wisdom, eliminated a program to contain the screwworm in Central America. This is what happens when you do not listen to the experts and the people who know what they are doing.

Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, who represents south Texas, has warned people in Washington that USDA experts have told him we need to be producing 700 million sterile flies, but the administration hasn't listened.

The threat of New World screwworm is just one consequence of the Trump administration's reckless campaign to eliminate funding for government programs and research initiatives that our country invests in and that Americans rely on. Importantly, this Congress has utterly failed to do anything about it and failed to stop it.

Rebuilding our Federal Government's capacity to respond swiftly during crisis takes time, and as Texas farmers and ranchers can tell you, we are witnessing a crisis unfold before our eyes right now.

Madam Chair, for these reasons and the many others my colleagues have identified, I will be voting against this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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