Todd Tiahrt: “My amendment would restrict travel funds for USDA employees who are working in Washington, D.C., until the Secretary of…”

“My amendment would restrict travel funds for USDA employees who are working in Washington, D.C., until the Secretary of Agriculture implements a voluntary program for beef slaughtering establishments to screen for BSE, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, mad cow disease as it is commonly known. Right now, America has the safest beef in the world, and a lot of it comes from the great State of Kansas, but this is not about food safety. This is about trying to meet the demands of customers. Creekstone Farms Premium Beef is a small packing company in Arkansas City. At that location, they employ about 750 workers who have been reduced from 5-day work weeks to 4 days because we have failed to open up markets in Japan and South Korea. The reason that has happened is because they have demanded in those markets that we have some kind of 100 percent screening. The USDA has not allowed this to occur. It is my personal view that USDA should be in the business of setting minimum standards and not maximum standards, but because of this ban, America has lost in exports to Japan and South Korea nearly $1 billion worth of exports.”