Tom Harkin: “I wonder how many consumers know that only 2 percent of all the produce they eat that comes from outside this country is…”

“I wonder how many consumers know that only 2 percent of all the produce they eat that comes from outside this country is ever inspected--2 percent. The rest of it, who knows what is on that stuff when it comes to this country. The consumers don't know this. And as the Senator said, it will go up in the future. We will get more and more of that produce from other countries. That is why this is really needed. I thank the Senator for his support and his comments on this. Mr. President, there is an editorial that appeared in today's Los Angeles Times that I was just made aware, calling on us to do something about food safety. Obviously, they probably didn't know about my amendment. But they did say... the U.S. Senate can take a big step to combat food contamination by restoring all or most of the $101-million initiative the Clinton administration has proposed to improve food safety. The money would go to hire new safety inspectors, upgrade technologies, and bring coherence to disjointed oversight. So far, The Senate has allocated only a piddling $2.6 million for the initiative at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and nothing at all at the Food and Drug Administration. The editorial went on to say that we needed more funding. I will quote the last paragraph of the editorial: Food safety is an unassailable cause. There are some things that only government can do, and guaranteeing the wholesomeness of our food supply is one of them.…”