On the recordMay 18, 2018
The scope of this problem is really not appreciated unless you go to our borders and see what happens. All the things that come into this country, that are shipped into this country, generally come in on wooden pallets, and those wooden pallets are a haven or a potential pest nest for all of these wood-borne pests. We have laws on the books right now that say all of those pallets have to be treated. Those pallets have to be stamped with a stamp that says the wood has been treated properly. But if you go down there and talk to our hardworking men and women at APHIS who man these posts and try to prevent this from happening, they will tell you that they are constantly on the lookout for counterfeit stamps, pallets that have not been stamped or properly treated. It doesn't take many of them having a pest in that pallet that then gets transported into the United States as a result of transit, and now we are in a fight that we shouldn't have had to begin with. So I am fully supportive of the gentleman's amendment to strengthen this whole process, add sunlight to it, even more light to it, because we have got great hardworking men and women manning these posts on every border. We have been to the northern border, we have been down south. Just the volume of stuff coming through every single day that has to come through, we can't stack it up and not get it through. Mr. Chair, I am supportive of the gentleman's amendment.
