Political Quotes

“I commend ranking member Warner for his stewardship of the fiscal year 2003 defense budget process in the Senate. We face many challenges to our national security in this day and age and I am thankful for his leadership. One of those emerging challenges we face is the terrorist threat to our food supply, specifically U.S. agriculture. On the Federal, State, and local level, we need to establish procedures to detect, deter, and respond to large scale coordinated attacks against livestock and agricultural commodities. Toward that end, I ask the Senate to support my amendment to authorize, with an offset, $1,000,000 for research, development, test, and evaluation, defense-wide in-house laboratory independent research, PE 0601103D8Z, for research, analysis, and assessment of efforts to counter possible agroterrorist attacks. It is my hope that universities with established expertise in the agricultural sciences can conduct studies and exercises that lead to better coordination between Federal, State, and local authorities as they attempt to detect, deter, and respond to large-scale coordinated attacks on U.S. agriculture. Most importantly, I envision universities assisting the Department of Defense in determining what role, if any, our military or Defense agencies play in countering agroterrorism. I ask my colleagues to support my amendment.”