Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2007

AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007 -- (House of Representatives - May 23, 2006)

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I rise in opposition to this amendment and in support of this initiative.

The grape industry is very, very important to the country, as the gentleman noted; but this program is also very important to the grape industry and to the consumers across this country. Grapes are the sixth largest crop in the United States and the largest specialty crop in the United States.

In the past, wine, wine grapes, raisins, table grapes, and the grape juice industry have all competed for Federal funds. This is funding that does work in regard to pest control and in research for health issues that are important to the American people. Because of this competition factor in the past, oftentimes those funds were spent in ways that were duplicative and were uncoordinated. That is not healthy for the taxpayers, for the industry, or for the American people.

With this initiative, all of those aforementioned industries have come together to ensure that the funding would be coordinated and it would be focused. It would be focused to work to benefit not only all of these industries but all of the American people. Again, this is in research for health care, for health issues, and for pest control.

An example: at UC Davis, some of the work they have been doing under this program has led to some incredibly good developments in combating diabetes. If this amendment were accepted, that program would go away and all of this work would be lost. We shouldn't reduce the funding in this program, and we should all vote against the gentleman's amendment.

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