Tim Huelskamp: “As a farmer and rancher myself, I am very concerned by this amendment. One might be led to believe that with the…”

“As a farmer and rancher myself, I am very concerned by this amendment. One might be led to believe that with the adoption of this amendment, somehow important research would continue. Actually the opposite is true, Mr. Chairman. We have billions and billions of dollars in this country that are based on our livestock industries, and unless this Congress and this President continue forward with a plan to build a BSL level 4 security research facility, we will not do the necessary research to protect critical industries, livestock industries in particular, in this Nation. Let me identify two diseases, the Hendra virus and the Nipah virus, that research is not occurring on right now. The Hendra virus' first outbreak was in Australia in 1994. It killed 13 horses. But more importantly, it killed a number of humans. It's a zoonotic disease, and the research is not occurring now. Secondly, how about the Nipah virus? First identified in Malaysia in 1999, the outbreak resulted in the killing of more than 1 million hogs and 257 cases in humans, killing 105 of them. Without this type of research, Mr. Chairman, these are the kinds of viruses we have no protection for. Folks might say, well, don't worry, if we would have this type of virus in America, we can outsource the research to friendly countries, Australia and Canada, that will do the research for us. But, Mr. Chairman, I'm not willing to rely on outsourcing the protection of very important industries.…”