[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 101 (Tuesday, July 23, 2002)]
[House]
[Page H5092]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   COMBATTING CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 23, 2002, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Green) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, needless to say, Americans are 
concerned with lots of issues these days, including the issue that my 
good friend on the other side of the aisle just raised.
  Mr. Speaker, I take to the floor to raise an issue that I think in 
calmer times would be front page news. Mr. Speaker, what if I told the 
Members there was a complex and infectious agent out there that was so 
little understood that science is not quite sure how to categorize it? 
And if I told Members that this agent, called a preon, is very hard to 
kill: not killed by burying, not killed by heating, not killed by 
disinfectant? What if I told the Members further that the disease it 
carries is 100 percent fatal to the deer and elk that it attacks? There 
is no cure, there is no treatment. We do not know how it is spread, and 
we do know it is a cousin to mad cow disease.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, if there was not so much going on, it would, 
indeed, be front page news. This disease, called chronic wasting 
disease, has now been found in nine States. It has now been found in 
Canada, and it is spreading. It could have a devastating impact on the 
culture, on the environment, and on the economy of so many States.
  If there is good news to report this morning, it is, first, that 
Congress has recently secured more funds to help in this battle. For 
example, last week in a colloquy that I held with the chairman of the 
Subcommittee of the Interior of the Committee on Appropriations, that 
chairman pledged to me that he would help us get another $4 million to 
help us all in this battle against chronic wasting disease.
  Secondly, guided by legislation that I authored with the gentleman 
from Colorado (Mr. McInnis) and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. 
Ryan), and supported by most Members, Republican and Democrat, from 
Wisconsin, the administration has now developed a comprehensive plan to 
fight chronic wasting disease over the long haul. That plan will mean 
more research and more money to the States.
  But Mr. Speaker, there is one area in which we have made painfully 
little progress. That is providing enough testing resources for chronic 
waste disease. Research is good, study is good, but what our hunters 
will really want, what they really need, are enough testing facilities 
to tell them whether their deer are safe. It is that simple, Mr. 
Speaker. We are falling short.
  Federal officials have decided against allowing private labs to test 
for chronic waste disease, only State and Federal labs. But that raises 
real problems. For example, the State lab in Wisconsin will only be 
able to handle 15,000 to 30,000 cases per year. If all goes well, by 
September there may be as many as 11 State labs throughout the entire 
country, and if all goes well, their capacity for testing may be 
perhaps 500,000 per year.
  But Mr. Speaker, each year in Wisconsin alone some 600,000 deer 
hunters will take to the woods. They will bag in a good year as many as 
400,000 deer in Wisconsin alone. That means our testing capacity will 
be dangerously short. We need more testing to reassure our hunters. We 
need more testing to diagnose the extent of the epidemic.
  Mr. Speaker, I am convinced this is a health crisis, it is an 
environmental crisis, and I know it is an economic crisis for States 
like mine, States like Wisconsin.
  This morning, I call on the administration to do everything possible 
to increase testing capacity now. That means increasing the number of 
public labs that do testing. That means reconsidering its decision not 
to work with private labs. We must leave no stone unturned, because the 
consequences of inaction are simply too high.
  Mr. Speaker, as I began, I said that Members probably have not heard 
much about chronic wasting disease because of everything else that is 
going on. I fear that Members will hear an awful lot about it in the 
years ahead. We have to act now. We have to increase testing. It is the 
right thing to do. It is the safe thing to do.

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