Providing for Congressional Disapproval of A Rule Submitted By the Secretary of Agriculture

Floor Speech

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Ms. AYOTTE. Mr. President, first of all, we have 10 GAO reports that have found this to be duplicative and wasteful.

For some reason, there is a special office for catfish but no other fish species. The USDA normally inspects meat and poultry, not fish, so to waste taxpayer dollars this way lacks common sense.

I say to my friend from Mississippi, I know he made an argument on the Budget Committee, but the Budget Committee's opinion basically says there is no direct spending. We all know that a lot of domestic spending is discretionary spending, and discretionary spending will continue on this program. The GAO has found that this costs an additional $14 million a year, this duplicative program. By the way, the $1.5 million that has been cited has not been confirmed by GAO.

Colleagues, let's not be bottom dwellers. Let's get rid of duplicative and wasteful spending. We have 10 GAO reports stacked up. We can get rid of this duplicative program that inspects catfish, which is already inspected by the FDA. By the way, as Senator McCain has said, the FDA has intercepted the toxins my colleagues and friends from Mississippi have cited as well as toxins found in domestic fish. They know how to do this, and we don't need a special office for catfish.

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