Debbie Dingell: “today we are considering bipartisan legislation on a matter of utmost national importance, our preparedness against…”

“today we are considering bipartisan legislation on a matter of utmost national importance, our preparedness against terrorism. I want to begin by commending my good friend, the chairman of the committee, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), and the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Ganske), as well as my colleagues, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Deutsch), who worked so hard on this, and the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Harman). This bill was put together in the best bipartisan traditions of the way the Committee on Energy and Commerce has always worked, and it resolves in the best possible way the questions that concern us with regard to preparedness and protection of our people against bioterrorism. There are many excellent provisions in the legislation, including improvement and protection of drinking water supply, tighter controls on dangerous biological agents, and a number of other things, including putting support where it needs to be put to help our people to address the problems which they have on the local level and to improve Federal- local cooperation in these matters. It also does something very important, and that is it improves inspection resources for imported food.”