Henry Bonilla: “sometimes I wonder when we listen to debate in this Chamber if we are not made up of a lot of Chicken Littles with…”

“sometimes I wonder when we listen to debate in this Chamber if we are not made up of a lot of Chicken Littles with concerns about the money that is put in here for APHIS and trying to prevent the diseases from coming over here. They are not here. There is absolutely no threat at this point domestically to any of us, humans, plants, animals, because our systems work. We are working every day in a bipartisan way to make sure that we remain safe from these threats that have devastated other countries. Can anybody guarantee that nothing is going to happen? Of course not. That is why we have over and over again talked to the Secretary and communicated with everyone involved who could possibly have a role in preventing these diseases from entering our country to make sure we are doing everything we can. Even though there was a request by the administration in this area, we reviewed that with the Secretary of Agriculture over and over again, specifically to find out if she could access this multibillion-dollar fund if, in fact, something happened. There is also a plan in place that, looking a step further, assuming that the sky does fall and Chicken Little is finally right, there would be an indemnity program for livestock if something were to occur. Of course, we cannot predict, and all we can do is do all we can to be prepared.”