OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN TOM HARKIN

SENATE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE HEARING ON

THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

"The President has stated, and I agree, that we have to be ready to respond and protect American interests against a new and very dangerous threat of terrorism. Protecting our borders and keeping our residents safe from harm is our government's highest priority, and one of our greatest challenges. In an increasingly integrated world, with an ever greater emphasis on international trade and commerce, we face especially difficult challenges in protecting the health and safety of our food and agriculture sector.

"President Bush's proposal for a new Department of Homeland Security included the transfer of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to the proposed new department. We are still working to understand and analyze all of APHIS's various responsibilities to determine how to best promote homeland security. In fact, our respective staffs recently convened a roundtable discussion with industry and public-interest groups to get recommendations on the Administration's proposal and how to best protect agriculture.

"Recently, the Administration indicated it is agreeable to action by the House Agriculture Committee essentially to transfer just those APHIS functions that focus on border security, along with the physical assets of the Plum Island agricultural research facility. It is this proposal the Committee will focus on in today's hearing.

"As I understand it, this approach would transfer some 3200 employees of APHIS's Plant Protection and Quarantine Service (PPQ) to the Department of Homeland Security. These employees are the front line troops of our agricultural health system. They protect not just our borders, but also provide the personnel and infrastructure vital to addressing existing domestic agricultural health problems such as plum pox, citrus canker, Asian long-horned beetles, and avian influenza, as well as developing contingency plans for outbreaks of catastrophic diseases like foot and mouth disease and BSE.

"Our agricultural health system, just like our public health system, is a network of local, state, and federal agencies and professionals. The resources of our agricultural health system are already strained. The investments have not kept up with the challenges. So, it is especially important that this committee review any proposals to restructure APHIS with the utmost care and scrutiny. Consolidation of functions is good when it leads to more effective responses to agricultural health threats.

"However, the test of any restructuring proposal for APHIS must be, will it improve our basic agricultural health infrastructure? If it does not, I think we can all agree that proposal must fall. It would also serve us well to look across the spectrum of agencies charged with ensuring the safety of our food supply to make sure that we improve coordination among those agencies and, thereby enhance homeland security.

"On another point, I hope the Administration will reconsider its stance on exempting the Department of Homeland Security from FOIA and civil service protections.

"I look forward to hearing the testimony of our witnesses today, it will go a long way to help this Committee evaluate what we need to do to improve our agricultural health system."

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