At a time when China and Brazil are ramping up their investment in agricultural research, we cannot afford to let ours be gutted, or worse still, be ignored.

Do you have a sense of if, once the rule becomes final--you might not be able to answer this yet. But do you have a sense of how many fewer poultry inspectors you'll need in the system?

I was pleased to see the funding increase request for NIFA.

And I guess my next two questions are, why is it not already final, because you've been working on this for a long time, and it seems like the evidence is steering you in that direction? So why is it not already final? And then, when do…

Can you look in to this matter and make sure that our fish farmers will be able to protect their products?

Okay. And I've noticed also that the budget includes an increase of $50 million for the WIC contingency reserve. Do you anticipate using any of that reserve in this fiscal year?

And what impact has sequestration had on WIC, if any?

We may have some follow-up on that in a few minutes, but, first, I wanted to ask Dr. Hagen about the FSIS.

I don't intend to close Booneville ARS lab in this bill.

Right. That's great news.

Yes, I think the way it's worked up to this point is pretty much that person has to come out on the farm...

If we want to remain the world leader, we need to keep up our game.