Russ Feingold: “I rise today to urge Secretary Veneman to provide more details on the United States Department of Agriculture's recent…”

“I rise today to urge Secretary Veneman to provide more details on the United States Department of Agriculture's recent announcement regarding chronic wasting disease, CWD, testing, and urge her to provide hunters with more testing opportunities for CWD. On Tuesday of this week, USDA announced an increase of up to 200,000 more Government-approved tests for chronic wasting disease this deer hunting season. Prior to the announcement, USDA officials have said labs certified to test for the disease would only accommodate the needs of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, DNR, and not provide testing opportunities for hunters. I appreciate USDA's recent decision to allow Government laboratories certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USDA, to offer an additional 200,000 chronic wasting disease or CWD tests to Wisconsin hunters. As I noted in my September 24, 2002, letter to Secretary Veneman, given hunters' concerns in my state, it is appropriate for USDA to offer any excess test processing capacity in the Government system to Wisconsin on a priority basis. This assistance from USDA allows Wisconsin to be able to offer testing to our hunters on request, and gives Wisconsin hunters access to the 'gold standard' immunohistochemistry, IHC, test.”