Political Quotes

“Mr. President, Senator McCain and I, along with a strong bipartisan group of our colleagues, are offering this amendment to repeal the 2008 farm bill's catfish language. Our amendment would repeal this language because it is unfair to importers, it is costly to taxpayers, and it provides no food safety benefit. It is duplicative of the other programs, and it never received consideration or debate in the House or Senate and should never have passed in the first place. It doesn't make sense to have a catfish category for the regulation of fish, and then all other fish are in a completely separate category. The GAO concluded in its recent report: To enhance the effectiveness of the food safety system for catfish and avoid duplication of effort and cost, Congress should consider repealing provisions of the Farm Bill that assigned USDA responsibility for examining catfish and for creating a catfish inspection program. Five years later, they are still debating what a catfish is. This is entirely duplicative, a waste of time, and hurts consumers and processors. I hope colleagues will support us in this effort. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time in opposition? The Senator from Arkansas.”