[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 20925]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was 
referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-77. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of Texas urging Congress to make eradication of 
     the fever tick in South Texas a priority and continue to 
     provide appropriate funding and resources for this effort; to 
     the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

                  House Concurrent Resolution No. 120

       Whereas, south Texas is on the front line of the battle 
     against the fever tick, a pest that threatens to inflict 
     catastrophic losses on the beef industry should it continue 
     to spread beyond a permanent quarantine zone established 
     along the Rio Grande in 1943; and
       Whereas, historically, the fever tick ranged across the 
     entire southeastern United States, reaching as far north as 
     Maryland and Pennsylvania; the tick can carry and transmit a 
     parasite that causes cattle tick fever, which kills up to 90 
     percent of infected cattle; in 1893, the Texas Animal Health 
     Commission was founded to fight this scourge, and in 1907 the 
     United States Department of Agriculture established the 
     National Cattle Fever Tick Eradication Program; by then, the 
     tick had already caused direct and indirect economic losses 
     estimated to equal more than $1 billion in today's dollars; 
     and
       Whereas, the eradication program had successfully contained 
     the fever tick to an 852-square-mile quarantine zone by 1943; 
     the tick was never eliminated in Mexico, however, and 
     personnel from the USDA Tick Force have maintained a high 
     level of vigilance to fight continuous reintroduction; after 
     the pest was detected beyond the zone in 2007, five temporary 
     preventive quarantine areas were established, covering more 
     than one million acres in Starr, Zapata, Jim Hogg, Maverick, 
     Dimmit, and Webb Counties; and
       Whereas, in March 2008, the Texas Department of Agriculture 
     requested some $13 million to fight the spread of fever 
     ticks; the USDA released $5.2 million, and in January 2009 it 
     committed another $4.9 million in emergency funds, but 
     sustained funding over the long term is essential; moreover, 
     the National Fever Tick Eradication Strategic Plan, developed 
     and approved by the USDA in 2006, has never been implemented 
     and funded, and Dr. Bob Hillman, the state veterinarian and 
     executive director of the Texas Animal Health Commission, has 
     warned that fever ticks are a national livestock threat that 
     requires an all-out assault; and
       Whereas, the fever tick has gained substantial ground in 
     this state, but the Texas Department of Agriculture, the 
     Texas Animal Health Commission, and the USDA Tick Force 
     continue working diligently with cattle owners to save a key 
     component of the Lone Star State's agricultural economy and 
     prevent the battlefront from extending to other states; if 
     the fever tick is not contained, the cost to the cattle 
     industry could easily approach $1 billion a year and lead to 
     rising food costs for consumers; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas 
     hereby memorialize the Congress of the United States to make 
     eradication of the fever tick in South Texas a priority and 
     continue to provide appropriate funding and resources for 
     this effort; and, be it, further
       Resolved, That the Texas secretary of state forward 
     official copies of this resolution to the president of the 
     United States, to the speaker of the House of Representatives 
     and the president of the Senate of the United States 
     Congress, and to all members of the Texas delegation to 
     Congress with the request that this resolution be officially 
     entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the 
     Congress of the United States of America.

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