Bart Stupak: “Well, with Fast Track, if we take a look at the proposed legislation, H.R. 3005, the legislation that is going to be…”

“Well, with Fast Track, if we take a look at the proposed legislation, H.R. 3005, the legislation that is going to be proposed, when we get to environmental standards or inspection, it is all voluntary. And when we have voluntary negotiating on objectives, on the environment, on food safety, it usually means nothing will happen. If anything, when we look closely at H.R. 3005, it is a step backwards. We do not have an opportunity to enforce the laws that we have because they are all subject to negotiations. Under H.R. 3005, when it comes to inspections, that is subject to negotiation. Even our laws which prevent adulterated or bad food that does not meet our standards or uses pesticides not allowed in this country, that is subject to negotiation. It is voluntary under these proposals. The gentleman from Ohio talked about food coming into this country, that seven-tenths of 1 percent is ever inspected. Well, when they do broccoli, they just take a crate and drop it on the ground. If bugs come out, they impound it. If no bugs come out, it goes on. For years, we have asked for sophisticated inspection of food coming into this country. Let us not just drop the crates. Let us do a quick chemical test to see what pesticides are in it that we are consuming. Let us put the country of origin on this food. Let us have inspectors there and be able to impound the food for some time so we can have an opportunity to do a proper inspection.”