Agriculture groups question APHIS move to security agency

House Agriculture Chairman Larry Combest, R-Texas, Wednesday said the Bush administration's plan to move the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and its 8,700 employees into the proposed Homeland Security Department "has generated far more questions than answers."

Combest noted "everyone" on the list of agriculture commissioners and agricultural lobbyists who submitted testimony for the committee's hearing Wednesday expressed support for increasing homeland security but also "opposed the wholesale movement" of APHIS. Combest had invited White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge to testify, but he appeared instead before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday.

House Agriculture Ranking Member Charles Stenholm, D-Texas, also said he was dismayed the Bush administration did not send anyone to testify before the Agriculture Committee to defend the proposal.

Three state agriculture commissioners-Bob Odom of Louisiana, Roger Johnson of North Dakota and Meg Scott Phipps of North Carolina-testified that moving APHIS could endanger its responsibility for protecting the United States from naturally occurring animal and plant diseases. Phipps said she would ask Ridge if APHIS' "other services" besides border inspection "would fall on the back burner" and "how [Homeland Security] would interrelate with state departments of agriculture."

Johnson said he would ask Ridge whether the "entire agency" would move and how it would respond to reports of "internal threats" to agriculture. Johnson also said committee members should be concerned about whether APHIS can perform its current functions if it increases its border security activities without a budget increase.

Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., told the commissioners he does not want the proposed Homeland Security Department in charge of dealing with crop diseases like citrus canker, but added, "I don't know how we in agriculture can make the argument it makes sense to move" other agencies such as the Coast Guard and the Customs Service and not move APHIS. House Agriculture Livestock and Horticulture Subcommittee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said he thought it would be "detrimental" to move most APHIS functions to the new department.

While Wednesday's hearing did not focus on continuing speculation that the Homeland Security Department may include a single food safety agency, Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., said FDA "has to be a part" of homeland security. Gutknecht said FDA has "put a wall around the country" when it comes to the importation of prescriptions, but does very little to inspect imported foods under its jurisdiction. Gutknecht is convinced "more people have become ill and die from food that comes into the country than from illegal drugs."