Joe Pitts: “At this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Palmer).”

Explicitly creating a program exclusively for catfish seems to be unnecessary, and it directs resources away from high-risk foods.

It seems illogical that the USDA would be given the exclusive authority to oversee and regulate catfish only while the FDA regulates all other seafood.

It is embarrassing that in the most capable country in the world, in the most powerful elected bodies in the world that we effectively have done almost nothing to improve the health care of Americans since this law has been passed.

Both the FDA and the General Accountability Office agree that there is no food safety justification for this regulatory divide.