[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 139 (Wednesday, October 8, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H8723-H8725]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       FOOD SAFETY AND FAST-TRACK AUTHORITY FOR TRADE AGREEMENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Stupak] is recognized 
for 60 minutes.


            Let Us Get On With Real Campaign Finance Reform

  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to address the 
House and the country tonight. I could not help but overhear my 
colleagues who are talking about campaign finance, and the evilness 
they see about that. But I think it is time for us to stop talking 
about it and really get on with it.
  We have a number of pieces of campaign finance legislation. I think 
we all know what the problems are with campaign finance, and we should 
really go at it and bring those bills to the House floor and actually 
address it. I think maybe this country and the integrity of this body 
could be better served in that manner and method.
  I find it ironic that they would get up and rail about campaign 
finance, while it was the majority party here that caught a plane about 
4 o'clock in the afternoon and takes corporate jets to go up to New 
York to raise funds. I think that is the soft money that causes 
problems in campaigns, and we have some bills like McCain-Feingold and 
the Shays-Meehan bill here in the U.S. House of Representatives, and I 
wish we could get at it. We all know what the problem is. Let us cut 
the rhetoric and get on with the business of campaign finance. 
Unfortunately, that does not appear to be what is going to happen with 
majority party in control here in this Congress.
  What I do want to talk about is something that is coming forward, 
something that should be discussed openly, and I hope that the American 
public joins with me. That is on food safety.
  I sit on the Committee on Commerce, the Subcommittee on Health and 
Environment. We have been devoting some time there to the outbreak of 
E. coli and other problems throughout this country of our food supply. 
There is no greater security that a family can provide or the providers 
of that family provide for young people but to make sure that the food 
they serve each night is safe for their family's security.
  Unfortunately, what we have seen here in the last few years in the 
U.S. Congress and across this Nation is that the food coming into this 
country, we have more and more imports of food coming into this 
country, and the safety of that food has been very questionable, to say 
the least.
  What brings this issue to a head is recently the President came about 
3 weeks ago to the Democratic Caucus and presented his legislation to 
outline his fast-track authority. Fast-track authority, of course, is 
to allow the President and his negotiators to enter into trade 
agreements. The trade agreements would then come before the U.S. Senate 
and the U.S. House of Representatives, and we do not have the 
opportunity to change, amend, or alter those trade agreements.
  In those trade agreements, when we take a look, we can see many 
difficulties have developed in recent years. This new fast-track 
authority that the President is requesting is to actually increase our 
trade with the Caribbean nations and South American countries.
  While that is admirable and something we would all like to do, we 
must ask ourselves, why are we increasing trade at this point in time 
when our economy is doing so well, and what is the rush to enter into 
another trade agreement, especially when we take a look at it, and the 
trade deficit in this country is so high, and every year it continues 
to go up?
  Every President, be it Democrat or Republican, has come to the White 
House and has said, we are going to cut down on this trade deficit. 
Well, it has never happened. We have had fast-track legislation for the 
past five Presidents. That includes President Clinton, President Bush, 
President Reagan, President Carter, President Ford, and the trade 
deficit continues to spiral out of control.
  Our economy is doing so well, but yet we seem to be in this hurry to 
fast-track into another trade agreement. We must ask ourselves, why are 
we doing this? Why are we doing this? What is the rush to enter into 
another trade agreement? What is the rush to enter into another trade 
deficit that continues to go up?
  When I came to Congress in 1993, January 1993, the issue then was the 
budget deficit. We have basically erased that budget deficit, but the 
other deficit, the trade deficit, continues to go up.

                              {time}  2145

  Our economy is growing, more jobs ever in this country, yet our trade 
deficit continues to spiral out of control.
  So what is the rush to give the President more authority, authority 
to actually enter into more trade agreements which would actually lower 
our standards here in the United States, especially when we deal with 
food safety?
  Mr. Speaker, that is where I would like to direct my comments here 
tonight. What is the rush to lower our standards, especially when it 
comes to food safety?
  When I say lowering standards, understand the safety and security of 
our Nation's food supply has recently been in the news because of the 
contamination at the Hudson plant in Nebraska. And recently we had Beef 
America we have seen splash across our screens about E. coli.
  If we take the Hudson plant situation in Nebraska, over 20 million 
pounds of beef was recalled by the company when it was determined that 
some of the meat was contaminated with the deadly E. coli virus. In 
response, Secretary of Agriculture Glickman wants more authority to 
inspect and take action against meat and poultry factories. I think 
that is probably a step in the right direction.

[[Page H8724]]

  But at the same time the administration is saying to us, let us 
increase and give us more authority to inspect and recall meat here in 
this country, why is the administration then proposing to weaken 
inspection standards of our supply of food coming into this country by 
opening up our borders to more and more imported foods? Our border 
cannot keep up with the increased flow of traffic.
  In fact, if we take a look at what has happened to food safety and 
food inspection in this country since the passage of NAFTA, and I am 
going to look at NAFTA here tonight because that is the real trade 
agreement that came under fast-track authority, it came up in 1993, and 
if we take a look at 1993, here we are 4 years later, Mexican imports 
to the U.S. are up by 82 percent and nearly 70 percent of those imports 
are carried into the United States on trucks.
  Mr. Speaker, how many do we actually inspect? Let me comment briefly 
that while the food imports have doubled now in the last 4 years to 
more than 2.2 million shipments a year, and if we take a look at it, 
that comes out to about 9,000 trucks per day, 70 percent of those 
trucks are carrying some type of food products, yet only 2 percent are 
actually inspected at border.
  Yet under this new fast-track authority, the President is saying, let 
us allow more and more food to come into this country. The trade 
deficit goes up, our inspection, our food safety, continues to go down. 
Imports are up, less inspections are taking place, and we have more 
problems with food safety here in this country.
  If we take a look at what has happened, the increased traffic has 
caused great outbreaks of disease in the United States. After the 
passage of NAFTA in 1993, the rate of hepatitis A in the border regions 
rose two to five times greater than the national average.
  In Maverick County, TX, the rate of hepatitis A has doubled from 5.3 
in 1993 to over 10 times the State average in 1994. That also is true 
in Webb County, where the rate of hepatitis A has nearly tripled, and 
in El Paso County and Cameron County the rate has nearly doubled. But 
yet we are asking, under the fast-track legislation, to allow more and 
more food to come into the country.
  While we are having more food come in the country, what has happened 
to food inspection here in the United States? If we take a look at the 
records, and again I sit on the Subcommittee on Health and Environment, 
and this is some of the information made available to us.
  Mr. Speaker, take the U.S. domestic food supply. In 1981, we 
conducted on the domestic food supply in this country 21,000 
inspections. In 1996, how many inspections did we have? We had just 
5,000. Why did we go from 21,000 to 5,000? We are not even keeping up 
with the food being processed here in the United States, yet foreign 
food imports have doubled in the last 4 years. So while we have more 
food being processed in the United States, doubling the food coming 
into the United States, inspections are down six times what they were 
in 1981.
  Is it any wonder then that our food supply has been under real, 
constant attack by pathogens previously unknown, and like cyclospora 
that was found in the Guatamalan raspberries that came in earlier this 
year that sickened some 1,400 Americans? We did not know about those 
pathogens a few years ago, but now we are finding they are in our food 
supply. Whether they are Guatemalan raspberries or melons or carrots or 
lettuce, we are finding them and finding health problems associated 
with it, but we have less and less inspections here in the United 
States or in other countries. And again, the food coming into this 
country from foreign countries has actually doubled.
  So the President recently, and I will give him some credit, he took a 
good first step in trying to say, what can we do to help out and make 
sure that the food produced in other countries, fruits and vegetables 
especially, meet the U.S. standards, meet certain safety standards? And 
what the President suggested was a $24 million program which would help 
to increase inspections in foreign countries at the farm level, and 
also U.S. farmers would also face some new sanitation guidelines.
  Well, the problem with that is, and if I can go to my home State of 
Michigan, earlier this year we had strawberries come in the United 
States from I believe it to be Mexico, that were tainted, and they were 
only 1 or 2 percent of those strawberries that were tainted with the 
hepatitis A bacteria, and they were put in with a bigger shipment of 
strawberries, and they were distributed to schoolchildren throughout 
this country.
  In my home State of Michigan, approximately 140 children were very, 
very sick. While we only had 1 or 2 percent, it was mixed with a clean 
batch, and young children all across this country, 140 in my own State 
of Michigan, got very, very sick.
  So while we may inspect on the farm in Mexico or Guatamala, once it 
is put into a wholesaler and distributor and mixed in with clean fruit 
and it comes to this border, we are only inspecting 2 percent of the 
some 9,000 trucks entering the country each day. We are only inspecting 
2 percent. We can see how healthy good, safe fruits or vegetables mixed 
in with bad, because we do not catch it all, can cause a serious 
outbreak throughout this country.
  When I talk about serious outbreaks and food standards, I am talking 
about making sure that the irrigation water is clean, that there are 
lavatories, latrines out in the field, field latrines for the berry 
pickers, and make sure that they are taught to wash their hands, make 
sure that the water they use that they put on our fruits and vegetables 
is actually clean water and not already contaminated.
  While we have to comply with those standards here in the United 
States, we cannot, under fast-track agreements or trade agreements, 
enforce them on other countries because then it becomes a condition or 
tariff or barrier to free trade.
  If we look closely at chapter 7 and chapter 9 of the NAFTA agreement 
that was passed in 1993, many of those provisions were very weak in 
chapter 7 and 9 about inspection and what we can and cannot inspect and 
look for at the border. When we do that, what do we do? We lower our 
standards.
  While we have the world's healthiest food in the food we place before 
our family each night, we have some assurance, because it is inspected 
by U.S. inspectors, that it is relatively free of anything that may 
harm us, we have found that under these fast-track agreements it has 
prevented our ability, our ability to make sure that the food we put on 
our table each night is safe.
  Let us take a look back, and, again, on the committee I sit on, we 
received a report in May of 1997 from the General Accounting Office 
which released a study of the Animal Plant Health and Inspection 
Service and their efforts to minimize the risk from agricultural 
products which we may put on our table.
  The GAO reported that the NAFTA and the political muscle from 
importers had put pressure on their agency, their service, to carry out 
increased inspections more quickly. And, as I said, almost 9,000 trucks 
per day enter the U.S., but only 1 or 2 percent are actually inspected.
  If we look at it, because of staff shortage, one work unit along the 
U.S.-Mexican border can provide inspector coverage at a very busy area 
only 8 hours in a 24-hour day. So the port inspections have not been 
there. Increased inspections, of course, would only help to prevent the 
problems we are seeing throughout this country with food safety and 
food health problems.
  Mr. Speaker, earlier, about 2 weeks ago, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Brown) and I wrote a letter to the President, and we had almost one-
fourth of the Members of this House join in that letter. We said we are 
very concerned about the lack of inspection processes, that NAFTA has 
contributed to a sharp increase in food imports from Mexico, and the 
imports of Mexican fruit have increased 45 percent, vegetable imports 
have risen 31 percent. More than 30 percent of these imports are 
carried in the U.S. on trucks, but yet we find 1 or 2 percent of these 
trucks are being inspected.
  The provisions of NAFTA, and we have to look at NAFTA because that is 
the only free trade agreement we have to base decisions on, and the new 
fast-track that the President has requested will take in South America 
and Latin American countries. And when we took a look at NAFTA, it has 
resulted in the

[[Page H8725]]

imports of fruits and vegetables which have been contaminated with 
diseases and unhealthy pesticides.
  We are alarmed that Michigan schoolchildren contacted hepatitis A 
from strawberries, and in order to prevent future incidents, we urged 
the President to do three things:
  Number one, renegotiate the provisions of NAFTA which relate to 
border inspections and food safety and ensure that any future requests, 
this current request for fast-track authority, include strong food 
safety protections.
  We wanted to increase the funding for border inspections or, in the 
alternative, if he cannot do that, limit the increasing rate of food 
imports coming into this country to ensure safe food supplies.
  And last but not least, we asked that he begin an aggressive program 
to label all foodstuffs, I am talking about fresh and frozen fruits, 
vegetables and meats, and their country of origin, so the American 
consumer, before they pick that batch of carrots or the head of 
lettuce, that they know if it was grown in the United States or if it 
was grown in Chile or if it was grown if Mexico, and then the consumer 
makes the decision, what is best for themselves and their family.
  We look forward to working with the President on these vital public 
health issues. What we are saying is, let us not lower our standards as 
we enter into these fast-track agreements.
  There are many reasons probably to oppose fast-track. It could be 
because of environmental standards, it could be because of labor 
standards, but I think most importantly it is because of food safety 
standards.
  It was interesting today in the Committee on Ways and Means, which 
was the first committee to actually look at the President's fast-track 
authority. I was speaking to the Members after the vote. They reported 
out the President's fast-track authority in a weak vote. It did not 
contain strong provisions for food safety. It did not attempt in any 
way or shape to renegotiate fast-track with the NAFTA agreement, the 
North American Free Trade Agreement, which related to border 
inspections of food safety. It did not have strong food safety 
protections. It did not increase any funding for border inspections. 
And it certainly did not contain any food labeling program.
  When we look at that and the report on how the vote came out in the 
Committee on Ways and Means tonight, we will find it a weak vote. A 
very small majority of the committee reported out the fast-track 
legislation.
  So, Mr. Speaker, as we begin consideration of this fast-track 
legislation, I would hope that Members of Congress would take a very, 
very close look at it. This is not a trade issue. It is really a safety 
issue. Can we provide for our families safe, reliable food? Do we have 
the inspectors to do the job? Can we assure that the fruit or 
vegetables or meat or poultry coming into this country have been 
certified, have been inspected? Have the hands, the human hands that 
handled it, whether it is in the United States or whether it is in 
another country, have they used proper sanitation practices? Has the 
water that has been used for irrigation, has it been clean, fresh 
water?
  These are the questions we must all ask ourselves, or we will have 
more and more E. coli bacteria, cyclospora, or even E. coli 
contamination.
  Mr. Speaker, this is, again, not a trade issue, this is really a 
safety issue. We urge the President, before he comes and once again 
asks Members of Congress to approve fast-track, which is a broad trade 
negotiating authority, that he make sure that those three provisions we 
have asked for, labeling, food inspection, and make sure we have 
agreement that does not limit our right to inspect as chapter 7 and 
chapter 9 of NAFTA does.

                              {time}  2200

  We want to make sure that we have every guarantee for the American 
family. I do not know why we would want to compromise our strong food 
safety standards in this country to increase trade with other 
countries. Our economy is doing well. Our trade deficit continues to go 
up. We must get that under control. Let us not fast track this Nation's 
health and our children's health for another fast track agreement.
  When we take a look at it, I find it really sort of ironic that at a 
time when the administration is pushing for more regulation of meats 
and poultry and continues to raise concerns about pesticide safety in 
this country, those who want fast track extended to other countries 
want to make it easier for unsafe food to enter into this country.
  I find it amazing that when one goes on vacation, if one is from the 
north land, like I am from northern Michigan, one goes down to maybe 
the Caribbean or other parts to vacation during the long winter months, 
what do they say? Do not eat this; do not drink that. But yet that same 
food is going to come into this country without any kind of label or 
knowledge.
  How do we then guarantee our family's health and safety, especially 
when we find that back in 1981 we used to make 21,000 inspections. Last 
year we only made 5,000 inspections. Yet the food coming into this 
country over the last four years has doubled. Less inspectors, twice as 
much food coming in, but there is no mechanism to do the inspection.
  We certainly hope that as we begin this debate on fast track 
legislation, that the debate will be on its merits, that we will look 
at the inspection of not only U.S. domestic food supply but most 
certainly the food supply that is coming into this country from foreign 
countries. As I said, imports have doubled to over 2.2 million 
shipments per year, and we have to have more than just a 2 percent 
inspection.
  The FDA certainly has been pushing for changes since 1993, but 
unfortunately we have not kept pace with America's food supply. That is 
why we see the outbreaks of things like cyclospora or E. coli or 
hepatitis A throughout this country. They say, well, it is just along 
the border of Texas. But I live in Michigan, and when we have 130 to 
140 children ill because of strawberries and we have reasons to believe 
it came from Mexico, a tainted batch, but yet they can make it all the 
way to Michigan, we know it is a national issue.
  So while trade agreements and the standards are something we should 
all look at, by ``standards'' I just mean our own standards in this 
country, before we allow other products, especially food from other 
nations, into this country, they must meet our standards. I think that 
is only fair.
  I think it was only a year ago when the administration was very 
concerned about CDs, compact discs, and how they were ready to have a 
trade war with China because they did not honor our intellectual 
property rights on things like CDs. What about our health and safety 
rights on things like food, food safety, fruits, vegetables, meats, 
poultry? So while there may be many reasons, and we hear many reasons 
to oppose fast track authority, or at least fast track agreements where 
the U.S. Congress does not have the right to alter, amend or change, 
when the agreement comes here we must vote yes or no with no 
amendments, we always hear about labor standards We hear about 
environmental standards. But how about consumer protection? How about 
food safety? How about the safety of the American family?
  So I would urge my colleagues, as we begin this debate, as I said, 
the Committee on Ways and Means has recommended that the bill be 
considered by the full House, that we have a debate, a debate on the 
food standards, what has happened, what is happening throughout this 
country with E. coli, with hepatitis A and many of the other pathogens 
that we did not know about a few years ago which contaminate our food 
sources. What are the chemicals that other countries use on their 
fruits and vegetables as they grow them? DDT is one of them used in 
Mexico that has been outlawed for many years in this country.
  Those are the questions that we must ask. So I come to the floor 
tonight to offer my hand to extend to the administration to assist them 
as we debate these issues, and at the same time I hope I bring 
awareness to the other Members who are maybe listening in their office 
or to constituents throughout this country that they raise the same 
issues that I am raising here tonight. I do not have all the answers. 
But if we work together in a collective way, we can guarantee that the 
fast track agreement has the protections, that we do not lower our 
standards for food safety, for the health and security of our families.




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