Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Safeguarding American Agriculture Act of 2011, with Senator Feinstein.

With the recent ten-year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, it is appropriate to reflect on the significant changes our country has undertaken to strengthen our homeland defenses. We must examine how well we are protecting the American people and our way of life today, and, where vulnerabilities remain, take decisive action to bolster our defenses. The act we introduce today does just this, by seeking to strengthen our Nation's agricultural import and entry inspection functions to better safeguard American agriculture and natural resources against foreign pests and disease.

Invasive species arrive at U.S. ports of entry every day, often hidden in the wooden crates, pallets, and shipping containers used to transport agricultural cargo, or concealed in the imported goods themselves. Failure to detect and intercept these non-native pests and diseases imposes serious economic and social costs on all Americans.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that foreign pests and disease already cost the U.S. economy tens of billions of dollars annually in lower crop values, eradication programs, emergency payments to farmers, and increased costs for food and other natural resources. The invasive asian stink bug, for example, is ravaging mid-Atlantic crops, often destroying significant portions of apple, peach, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry, tomato, pepper, sweet corn, and soybean harvests. The bug continues to spread despite ongoing Federal, State, and local eradication efforts. Invasive species threaten our competitiveness in international trade when trading partners decide to stop importing U.S. agricultural products due to the presence of an invasive pest or disease. For example, Japan continues to ban the importation of fresh potatoes from Idaho due to a 2006 outbreak of Potato Cyst Nematode in the State. A research team comprised of biologists and economists from U.S. and Canadian universities and the U.S. Forest Service published a study last month finding that invasive wood-boring pests, such as the emerald ash borer and the asian longhorned beetle, cost homeowners an estimated $830 million a year in lost property values and cost local governments an estimated $1.7 billion a year as a result of damaged trees and woodlands. Worst of all, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the accidental or deliberate introduction of a foreign disease, such as avian influenza or foot-and-mouth disease, would likely result in catastrophic economic losses for our Nation and take lives.

In light of the current and potential staggering economic costs of invasive species--which fall on businesses, taxpayers, and local governments that have no way to avoid the harm it is clear that focusing on prevention, specifically improving agricultural import and entry inspection operations at our ports of entry, is a very cost-effective strategy.

Of course, economic costs are just one aspect of the severe consequences that can result from foreign pests and disease slipping through our ports. In my home State of Hawai'i, which is home to more endangered species per square mile than any other area on the planet, invasive species and disease could permanently devastate our fragile ecosystem. In many regions of the country, invasive species threaten native fish prized by fisherman, and destroy wetlands that support waterfowl hunting. Even an important part of our American tradition and pastime, baseball, is at stake. For the past 127 years in Kentucky, Louisville Slugger, the world's largest and oldest maker of baseball bats, has manufactured high quality baseball bats from northern white ash trees harvested in Pennsylvania and New York. However, the company is very concerned that the destructive emerald ash borer beetle, which has already destroyed millions of ash trees in several States, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, could lead to the extinction of northern white ash trees, preventing Louisville Slugger from providing future generations with the company's famous ash bats.

Following the attacks of September 11, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which unified Federal customs, immigration, and agriculture inspection officers under the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The decision to transfer frontline agricultural import and entry inspection functions from the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, into the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, was a controversial decision.

I have long been concerned that the transfer resulted in significant disruptions to the agriculture mission and undermined the effectiveness of agricultural inspections. Other Members of Congress have expressed similar concerns, and there have even been efforts to remove agricultural inspection responsibilities from the Department of Homeland Security and return them to the Department of Agriculture.

While I understand these sentiments, as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, I understand that such drastic reorganizations are often costly and disruptive. In light of our Nation's fiscal challenges, I have concluded it is most efficient and effective to focus on strengthening the agricultural inspection mission within CBP, which in recent years, has made meaningful progress in stabilizing the agency's agricultural import and entry inspection operations.

The Safeguarding American Agriculture Act seeks to build upon these gains and fully achieve important measures of success identified in the June 2007 Report of the APHIS-CBP Joint Task Force on Improved Agriculture Inspection, which stated ``Success will be accomplished when the agriculture function within CBP is positioned prominently throughout the organization. The potential introduction of plant and animal pest and diseases will be regarded with the same fervor as all other mission areas within CBP.''

The Act would enhance the priority of, and accountability for, the agriculture mission by establishing within CBP an Office of Agriculture Inspection led by an Assistant Commissioner responsible for improving agricultural inspections across the Nation. This provision would improve efficiency and coordination by unifying agriculture policy development with agriculture operations. An agricultural chain of command that extends from the Assistant Commissioner for Agriculture Inspection to frontline agriculture specialists at the ports would also effectively address a key issue the task force identified in its 2007 report: ``Management and leadership infrastructure supporting the agriculture mission in CBP should be staffed and empowered at levels equivalent to other functional mission areas in CBP.''

Under the present organizational structure, the Deputy Executive Director for CBP's office of Agriculture Operational Oversight within the office of Agriculture Programs and Trade Liaison, which falls under the Office of Field Operations, is responsible for improving oversight of the agricultural mission across all CBP field offices by ensuring a more consistent application of agriculture inspection policy. However, the Deputy Executive Director lacks operational authority over the agriculture mission. Moreover, the dissemination and implementation of agricultural policy at the ports is ultimately at the discretion of CBP Officers who typically do not have agriculture expertise and are primarily focused on the critical mission of preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the country.

To maintain a highly skilled and motivated agriculture specialist workforce, the Act would require CBP to create a comprehensive agriculture specialist career track that identifies appropriate career paths and ensures that agriculture specialists receive the training, experience, and assignments necessary for successful career. The bill also would require CBP to develop plans to improve agriculture specialist recruitment and retention and to make sure agriculture specialists have the necessary equipment and resources to effectively carry out their mission.

To strengthen critical working relationships and promote interagency experience, the Act would authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of Agriculture to establish an interagency rotation program for CBP and APHIS personnel.

Taken together, the enhancements contained in the Safeguarding American Agriculture Act of 2011 would elevate the stature of the agriculture mission in CBP to match the magnitude of the challenge posed by invasive pests and disease. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

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