Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I strongly urge the Senate to reject S.J. Res. 28, which would overturn a catfish inspection rule that is working to protect American consumers. In both the 2008 and 2014 farm bills, Congress directed the administration to transfer authority for catfish inspection from the Food and Drug Administration to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We did so based on evidence that the FDA inspection regime then in place was inadequate. And we have been proven right. The FDA's inspection regime was inadequate. Over the course of 2 years, from 2014-2015, the FDA caught a total of two shipments of foreign catfish containing known dangerous cancer- causing chemicals that are illegal in the United States--two shipments over 2 years. Under the catfish inspection rule, USDA has intercepted two shipments of foreign catfish containing illegal, cancer-causing chemicals in less than 2 weeks. If you do the math, USDA is intercepting harmful catfish at a rate nearly 21 times greater than the rate at which FDA was before its inadequate program was closed down. USDA's inspection program has already proven to better safeguard consumer safety than FDA, which makes sense. After all, USDA is the most experienced, well-equipped agency to ensure farm-raised meat products, including catfish, are as safe as possible. The catfish rule is not costly. The Congressional Budget Office has said this resolution won't save a dime. The catfish rule is not duplicative.…”