Jerry Moran: “I do rise in opposition to this amendment that would allow horse slaughtering to resume in the United States. The…”

“I do rise in opposition to this amendment that would allow horse slaughtering to resume in the United States. The language that the gentlelady's amendment would strike was put into the bill as a bipartisan amendment by two Republicans and a Democrat--Mr. Sweeney, Mr. Whitfield and Mr. Spratt. What it did is to restrict funding for Federal activities involved with meat inspection. Thereby, it stopped horse slaughter for the purpose of human consumption in any facility in the United States, and it stopped new facilities from opening. It passed this body by an overwhelming vote: 269-158. Now, every year since, the language has been retained in the Agriculture appropriations bill. There are six very good reasons for doing this. One, it's money badly spent. Only foreign corporations which deal in horse meat for consumption in foreign markets would benefit from the Federal inspection of U.S. horse slaughter plants. So we are using American taxpayer money to inspect meat so that foreign corporations can send it overseas so that people living in foreign countries can consume it. There is a $37 million cut below last year's levels in the Food Safety and Inspection Service. So here you are cutting $37 million in food safety inspection. Yet you would be adding this additional burden onto the Food Safety and Inspection Service, an additional responsibility to inspect horse meat. Remember, this is meat that will be exclusively consumed in foreign countries.…”