Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004-Continued

AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004-CONTINUED

ELIMINATING AVIAN INFLUENZA IN RHODE ISLAND

Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise to engage in a colloquy with the distinghished Chairman and Ranking Member of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, as well as my colleague from Rhode Island, Senator CHAFEE, regarding the presence of Avian Influenza in Rhode Island. Since March of this year, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management's Division of Agriculture has been working to contain an outbreak of Low Pathogenic Avian Influenza in a poultry operation in Foster, Rhode Island, as well as a live bird market in Providence. The virus has been definitively identified as H7N2 Avian Influenza, of the same genetic sequence as the virus recently found in nearby poultry operations in Connecticut. Little Rhody Farms, the last of the traditional egg houses in Rhode Island, currently houses 32,000 hens producing brown eggs for sale in markets and food stores. Sales and distribution of eggs from the farm have declined due to customers' concerns that the produce may be tainted, and a federally imposed quarantine that has frozen the operation at half capacity. To eliminate the risk of the disease spreading further and to give the farm a greater chance to survive, state officials have strongly recommended depopulating the infected flock and disinfecting the premises. We have been unable to secure financial assistance from USDA to make depopulation possible.

I look forward to working with the Chairman and Ranking Member to include language in the fiscal year 2004 Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill to direct USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to provide assistance to Rhode Island Egg producers who have depopulated their flocks.

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EELGRASS RESTORATION IN RHODE ISLAND

Mr. REED. Mr. President, I rise to engage in a brief colloquy with the distinguished ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Agriculture, Senator Kohl, regarding language in the Committee's report to accompany S. 1427, the fiscal year 2004 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. I thank the Senator from Wisconsin for including language in the committee's report recognizing the importance of eelgrass habitats to marine ecosystems along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, and urging the Department of Agriculture to make funds available for projects in Rhode Island to enhance these habitats. I understand that it was the Committee's intention to encourage USDA to make such funding available through the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), rather than through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) as stated on page 101 of Senate Report 108-107. The purpose of our colloquy today is to clarify that the report language should have read as follows: "The Committee urges the Department to give consideration to the use of WHIP funding for projects in Rhode Island, and similar areas, that will enhance these habitats."

Mr. KOHL. Mr. President, the Senator from Rhode Island is correct. I join him in stating for the record that the Committee urges the Department of Agriculture to make funding available through the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program for eelgrass habitat projects in Rhode Island.