[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 132 (Thursday, October 4, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H6375-H6376]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         FOOD INSPECTION SYSTEM

  (Mr. SMITH of Michigan asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include 
therein extraneous material.)
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Madam Speaker, we took up the agricultural 
bill yesterday. We are going to do that again today. I think one area 
that we might want to reconsider looking at once this gets to 
conference or maybe even amendments today is an issue that relates to 
terrorism, and that is, our potential worst problem that we have in 
this country is the food inspection system.
  Tommy Thompson reports that they have 750 agents looking at 130 
points of entry, 55,000 places around America. Agriculture has 
thousands of inspectors compared to their 750. I think it is

[[Page H6376]]

reasonable that we consider and talk about the possibility that those 
inspections in agriculture that are just looking for what is allowed 
into this country or maybe some insects need to team up and have a 
greater ability to add to the energy of HEW in terms of the food health 
inspection.
  To assure credibility and integrity, I would ask that the two 
statements opposing and supporting my amendment yesterday also be 
entered into the Record at this point.

                                     House of Representatives,

                                  Washington, DC, October 3, 2001.
       ``There's a lot of medium-sized farmers that need help, and 
     one of the things that we're going to make sure of as we 
     restructure the farm program next year is that the money goes 
     to the people it's meant to help.''--President George W. 
     Bush, August, 2001
       Dear Colleague: Few people are aware that many of our farm 
     commodity programs, for all of their good intentions, are set 
     up to disburse payments with little regard to farm size or 
     financial need. Often in our rush to provide support for 
     struggling farmers we overlook just where that support is 
     going:
       This amendment only limits price supports, not AMTA, 
     conservation, or any other type of farm payment.
       The largest 18 percent of farms receive 74 percent of 
     federal farm program payments.
       In 1999, 47 percent of farm payments went to large 
     commercial farms, which had an average household income of 
     $135,000.
       The bulk of benefits over $150 thousand paid out on the 
     2000 harvest went to cotton and rice farmers--in fact, two 
     large rice cooperatives in Arkansas collected nearly $150 
     million between them.
       Unlimited government price supports for program commodities 
     disproportionately skews federal farm aid to the largest of 
     producers while encouraging overproduction and allowing the 
     largest producers to become even larger. Let's do more to be 
     fair to small and moderate size family farm operations by 
     establishing meaningful, effective payment limitations.

         CBO Has Scored This Amendment as Saving $1.31 Billion!

 Support the Smith-Armey-Blumenauer-McInnis-Shays amendment on federal 
                       price support limitations

           Sincerely,
                                                       Nick Smith,
                                               Member of Congress.

       Representative Smith states that his amendment will only 
     affect the very largest of recipients.
       Mr. Smith is wrong.
       He claims that it would take 1,950 acres of cotton or 
     17,000 acres of rice to reach the payment limit he 
     references. In reality, it would take 432 acres of cotton or 
     700 acres of rice.
       What the Smith amendment will do: Compromises the integrity 
     of the agricultural marketing system; punishes medium-size 
     farmers, the very ones he claims to be helping; adversely 
     affects producers who use marketing certificates; and 
     drastically reduces the effectiveness of the marketing loan

                    Oppose the Nick Smith Amendment

  I would like to add that less than 1 percent of imported food is 
inspected and that there were over 76 thousand reported food poisoning 
last year.
  It is generally agreed that the 21st century brings with it a new era 
in the biological sciences with advances in molecular biology and 
biotechnology that promise longer, healthier lives and the effective 
control, perhaps elimination of a host of acute and chronic diseases. 
The prospects are bright but there is a dark side--the possibility that 
infectious agents might be developed and produced as offensive weapons; 
that new or emergent infections, like HIV/AIDS or old diseases or other 
pathogens need to be guarded against at our borders.

                          ____________________