James T. Callahan: “I am a free trader I do not deny, and I am quite proud of it, and I have voted for each and every bill they have brought…”

“I am a free trader I do not deny, and I am quite proud of it, and I have voted for each and every bill they have brought to the floor. But sometimes we have to talk to our own administration and the only chance we have to talk to them effectively, and usually I do this on the appropriation bills, is by threatening to withhold their money. But we do have a tremendous problem in the catfish industry. The catfish industry in Alabama is a growing industry that is employing thousands of people. They have developed a hybrid catfish that is raised in fresh water ponds that are grain fed, that are high quality catfish. Now we find that the Vietnamese, and the Commerce Department or the FDA is allowing them, to ship into the United States, the Vietnamese, a poor quality fish that is not even a catfish, that is labeled a catfish. The reason I stand here today is to shoot a bow over the front of the ship of the FDA, and I have written Ms. Janice Oliver a letter and asked for her immediate decision on this classification.”