I have to say that there are a number of areas where I feel some concern.

Would it not make sense to maintain the prohibition on Canadian livestock and meat exports into the United States until the United States can be comfortable that they have eliminated their backlog and that their inspection regime is…

$200 million would be eliminated from water and sewer grants to small communities.

there is a widely held and growing view across much of America that the Department of Agriculture is teaming up with the packers to sandbag country of origin labeling for meat.

The reason you are hearing that is because they are scared to death of extraordinarily bureaucratic, red-tape filled, expensive recordkeeping requirements that the packers are telling them USDA is going to require.

And I would only conclude that among the things the law requires is that there not be third party verification requirements for every animal in the country.

This zeroing out, I think, has largely to do with making room for the President's massive tax cut.

I want to welcome Under Secretary Hawks, Under Secretary Bost, Under Secretary Murano today, as well as FDA Commissioner McClellan.

The country of origin labeling law gave USDA discretion to create an audit verification system, but not a mandatory system.

It seems to me that it should not be rocket science to figure out a monitoring system.

Would you agree that the law prohibits on-farm mandatory animal identification and does not permit third-party mandates by packers?