Political Quotes

“I thank the Presiding Officer. Mr. President, there are a couple of objectives this McCain amendment would accomplish. For one thing, it was in the 2008 farm bill. The current move to change the inspection from the FDA to the Department of Agriculture is in the current farm bill, and it is about to take place, so it would revisit the last two farm bills. I do not think we should be doing that in a trade promotion authority piece of legislation. Also, it is absolutely not duplicative. It can be said on the floor of the Senate 100 times, but the fact is that the USDA Catfish Inspection Program is not duplicative. It transfers inspection from the FDA to the USDA and the USDA has testified before Congress that when the program is operational, as it is about to be, the FDA program would be eliminated. Why move it from the FDA to the USDA? Here is the reason: There are a few of us--under controlled situations--who grow most of the catfish that is produced in the United States on farms, including the State of Mississippi and the State of Arkansas. My distinguished colleagues from Arkansas and Mississippi will speak on this issue in a few moments, I hope. This is about food safety for Americans in 50 States who deserve to know that the fish they are eating--the product they are eating--is unadulterated. Here are the facts: Under the current FDA program, only about 2 percent of the billions of pounds of imported catfish are inspected-- only about 2 percent.…”