Political Quotes

“American agriculture really can be defined very simply by three words: science, technology, and innovation. We should utilize that to our advantage, obviously, going forward. It really has been a defining nature of American agriculture. Quite frankly, traceability resources are paramount when dealing with an animal disease outbreak. We have seen that this year with poultry. We had threats on swine. We obviously invested, as of the last farm bill, a significant amount of money to have a vaccine for foot and mouth. Should that ever impact our livestock industry here, it would be devastating. APHIS' proposed rule on electronic identification would reduce the overall quarantine times, limit the number of animals that get sick, and allow farmers and ranchers to resume normal operations in a timely manner. Producers recognize that animal disease traceability is an essential component of protecting livestock during an animal disease outbreak, and that is whether they are the size of herds in Wyoming or, quite frankly, in Kentucky or Pennsylvania, where they are much smaller. Animal health is incredibly important, and the ability to recognize animal disease traceability is, as well. We should not allow ourselves to be in a position where efforts to improve animal disease traceability are hampered, and for this reason, I will oppose Ms. Hageman's amendment. Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.”