Joe Lieberman: “To me, that is indefensible--we need to be increasing this kind of funding, not cutting it.”

Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Stabenow, and members of the Committee.

The more than 700,000 citizens of the District of Columbia are our neighbors. They deserve to be treated as such by the rest of us in this country.

I think the reality of this threat to agricultural security has quite naturally now hit the people in the industry more than people outside.

The Department of Agriculture I gather is in the final stages and close to issuing a rule on reportable animal disease.