Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008

Floor Speech

AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the gentleman from Arizona for bringing attention to this vitally important research being conducted at Auburn University, an outstanding university in my district.

As my colleagues from Alabama know, and specifically my friend and colleague, Mr. Davis from the Seventh District, Auburn University is the home to USDA Aquatic Animal Health Research Laboratory. This laboratory conducts important research to help solve challenges in aquaculture that diminish productivity, lower the quality of catfish products, and hurt the long-term health of our domestic producers.

As my colleagues on the Agriculture Committee know, catfish is the leading aquaculture industry in the United States. In 2005, according to USDA, domestic producers sold 650 million pounds of catfish valued at $460 million. That total is only expected to grow. Today, catfish production has become one of the most important agricultural activities in States such as Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and, of course, my home State of Alabama.

In recent years, the American catfish industry has been faced with intense competition from foreign producers, specifically countries like China and Vietnam. This not only poses serious challenges to our economy but, as we have seen in recent news reports about tainted Chinese food products, also to our health. In 2005, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi banned Vietnamese catfish after U.S. health officials detected a banned antibiotic in Vietnamese imports. That ban remains in effect. In May of this year, Alabama banned Chinese catfish over the same concern.

As with many agricultural imports, we have no control over what drugs these foreign countries are giving to their catfish, nor do we know what diseases they are trying to prevent. But one thing we do know is that we do not want these products, these diseases and those threats to our food and our health in our country.

That is why the funding included in this bill for the Catfish Pathogen Genomic Project is so important. It helps protect the safety and health of our food supply, it helps protect and strengthen important American products and an industry critical to the economics of several States, and it helps carry on the tradition of university based research supported by the Federal Government that benefits our economy and society.

Mr. Chairman, I strongly oppose the gentleman's amendment and ask the support of my colleagues for this important research program.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. ROGERS of Alabama. Mr. Chairman, I would like to close by saying to my friend from Arizona, I share his concerns over some of our fiscal behavior in this Congress in recent years, but clearly this kind of USDA research university partnership is exactly what we should be fostering, given our concerns in this country about our food supply and its safety.

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