[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 157 (Monday, November 3, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13834-S13835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  FIFTY YEARS OF OUTSTANDING SERVICE BY AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of S.J. Res. 22, which was 
introduced earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the joint resolution by 
title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A joint resolution (S.J. Res 22) recognizing the 
     Agricultural Research Service of the Department of 
     Agriculture for 50 years of outstanding service to the Nation 
     through agricultural research.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the joint 
resolution.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, on November 3, 2003, the Agricultural 
Research Service, the primary research agency in the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, will celebrate its 50th anniversary. To commemorate this 
special anniversary, I, along with Senator Harkin, am offering a Senate 
joint resolution to recognize the important contributions the 
Agricultural Research Service provides to the agriculture community and 
to the Nation. Although ARS can trace its heritage back to early 19th 
century seed collection activities in the U.S. Patent Office, it was 
officially organized on November 2, 1953, when USDA consolidated most 
of its research functions into the newly named Agricultural Research 
Service. Today, ARS is a public institution that conducts agricultural 
research exclusively for the public good. The research is often long-
term and costly, and unlikely to be undertaken by the private sector. 
The ARS discoveries and innovations touch the lives of every American 
through the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the environment in 
which we live.
  I am very proud of the accomplishments ARS has made in my State. For 
example, ARS established the Lower Mississippi Delta Nutrition 
Intervention Research Initiative in 1995 to improve the health of 
residents of the Mississippi Delta through nutrition intervention 
research. ARS has partnered with, among others, the University of 
Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg and Alcorn State University in 
Lorman to identify food and nutrition problems in communities and to 
design nutrition interventions to determine how and why people make 
food choices, and how those choices could be improved. Another fine 
example of the partnership between the ARS and our Mississippi 
universities is the Southern Horticultural Laboratory in Poplarville. 
This ARS small fruit research facility, in cooperation with Mississippi 
State University, has led in the establishment of a vibrant blueberry 
industry in South Mississippi and other Gulf Coast States and has now 
expanded to include research on ornamentals and vegetables.
  The ARS Catfish Genetics Research Unit at Stoneville, in partnership 
with Mississippi State University, bred a new catfish variety, NWAC 
103, and released it in February 2001. This marks one of the few times 
genetic research has improved catfish since the industry started in the 
United States in the late 1950s. Since then, catfish has become one of 
the most successful aquacultural enterprises, thereby guaranteeing a 
plentiful supply of high-quality fish to consumers. Also, ARS 
scientists, in partnership with the University of Mississippi 
scientists, invented a new natural product-based algaecide for use in 
catfish aquaculture, thus providing an alternative to synthetic 
herbicides.
  A special ARS project in the late 1990s in Mississippi showed that 
farm runoff is not damaging Mississippi

[[Page S13835]]

groundwater. Data from the 7,320-acre Mississippi Delta Management 
Systems Evaluation Areas in Sunflower and LeFlore counties showed 
contamination by farm chemicals is not a problem. The Mississippi Delta 
MSEA also focused on farmland erosion control and preventing sediment 
and chemical runoff into three oxbow lakes: Beasley, Thighman and Deep 
Hollow. Technology being tested in the Delta MSEA not only enhances the 
health of the lakes, thus increasing fish and duck numbers, but may 
also help growers reduce costs.
  To mark its five decades of public service and, in recognition of the 
local and national partnerships that are the foundation of much of 
their research, ARS will celebrate with various events throughout the 
next year following a kick-off celebration on November 3, 2003.
  I commend the Agricultural Research Service on the occasion of its 
50th anniversary and look forward to many more years of its important 
service to the Nation.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, 50 years ago, James Watson and Francis 
Crick were identifying the double-helix molecule of DNA. The first 
embryo transfers from donor cows to recipients were made. The Korean 
War ended. And the Agricultural Research Service was created.
  The creation of ARS was not the beginning of the Department of 
Agriculture's efforts in agricultural research. President Abraham 
Lincoln signed the act creating the department, which included the 
charge to ``acquire and diffuse among the people of the United States 
useful information . . . and to procure, propagate, and distribute 
among the people new and valuable seeds and plants.'' The Department's 
commitment to agricultural research reaches back nearly 150 years. The 
ARS itself was created by Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson 
through a reorganization of the former Agricultural Research 
Administration, on November 2, 1953.
  In its 50 years of service, the ARS has discovered dozens of ways to 
protect crops and livestock from pests and disease. It has improved the 
quality and safety of agricultural products. It has played a critical 
role in developing nutrition standards and carrying out nutrition 
research. It has also developed techniques to maintain the quality of 
our soil, perhaps our greatest renewable natural resource. Its research 
has helped farmers work more efficiently and profitably. And it has 
worked to develop ways to keep food affordable for consumers.
  My State has been one of the greatest beneficiaries of ARS research, 
and the National Animal Disease Center at Ames, Iowa has played a vital 
role over the years in carrying out the mission of ARS.
  Hog cholera was one of the greatest problems faced by hog farmers in 
this country for more than 130 years, since it was first reported in 
Ohio in 1833. Outbreaks occurred frequently over the years, some 
resulting in the loss of more than one in 10 hogs in the U.S. In the 
early 1960's, hog cholera was still costing farmers $50 million per 
year.
  Agricultural research at USDA on hog cholera, much of it carried out 
in Ames, IA, dates back to the 1903 discovery of the hog cholera virus. 
ARS large scale studies starting in 1961 developed and tested a program 
to immunize hogs against cholera using killed virus. On the advice of 
ARS, USDA regulatory officials banned interstate shipment of live virus 
or animals vaccinated with live virus. In January 1978, Secretary of 
Agriculture Bob Bergland announced that, as a result of an aggressive 
campaign that employed the treatment techniques developed by ARS, that 
hog cholera had been entirely eradicated.
  ARS has had many similar successes. The eradication of screwworm in 
cattle and Marek's disease in chickens has saved an untold amount of 
money by preventing livestock losses. It is estimated that the savings 
from the Marek's disease program is 44.3 times it's cost for every 
dollar spent on immunization, $44.30 is saved. For those who suggest 
that domestic government spending does not help the economy, the work 
of ARS stands as a great example of a program that works and helps 
American farmers be the best in the world.
  So I salute the scientists of ARS for their 50 years of service to 
agriculture, and wish them 50 more. There are still many challenges to 
agriculture, and ARS will be there working to solve them.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be read 
the third time and passed, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to 
reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, and that any statements 
relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The joint resolution (S.J. Res. 22) was read the third time and 
passed.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The joint resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S.J. Res. 22

       Whereas the Agricultural Research Service is the primary 
     research agency of the Department of Agriculture and provides 
     the Department of Agriculture and other Federal offices with 
     objective research that is critical to the missions of those 
     offices;
       Whereas the agricultural research conducted by the 
     Agricultural Research Service has an enormous impact on the 
     economic viability of agriculture in the United States and 
     around the world;
       Whereas people around the world, especially rural 
     Americans, enjoy a higher quality of life due in part to the 
     work of the Agricultural Research Service to expand 
     scientific knowledge;
       Whereas the Agricultural Research Service has achieved 
     major scientific breakthroughs that have benefited farmers, 
     ranchers, agribusiness, and consumers;
       Whereas the Agricultural Research Service has made 
     scientific discoveries and technological developments that 
     address agricultural problems of broad scope and high 
     national priority, ensure safe and high quality food and 
     other agricultural products that meet nutritional needs, and 
     maintain a quality environment and natural resource base; and
       Whereas the Agricultural Research Service continues to play 
     a vital role in maintaining the global competitiveness and 
     leadership of the United States in the next millennium: Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, That 
     Congress--
       (1) recognizes the Agricultural Research Service of the 
     Department of Agriculture for 50 years of outstanding service 
     to the Nation through agricultural research; and
       (2) acknowledges the promise of the Agricultural Research 
     Service to continue to perform outstanding agricultural 
     research in the next 50 years and beyond.

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