Rebuild America Jobs Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MORAN. Mr. President, yesterday we concluded our work here in the Senate on our version of the Agriculture appropriations bill. I am a member of the Appropriations Committee, a member of the agriculture appropriations subcommittee, and I supported the legislation we passed, but there is an outstanding issue at the Department of Agriculture of which I was only recently made aware. To me, it is a very serious issue, and given more time I would have taken action here on the Senate floor. It is an issue I will continue to pursue as a member of the conference committee as we work toward our final fiscal year 2012 Agriculture appropriations bill.

The issue involves a memo issued by the Department of Agriculture last month, October 6, authorizing the Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, APHIS, to conduct an animal welfare scientific forum. This forum was approved by Under Secretary Edward Avalos on October 12.

I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the USDA's memo.

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Mr. MORAN. What is ironic about this forum is there is little science involved. It is little more, in my view, than the Department of Agriculture spending taxpayer dollars on a forum to provide the Humane Society of the United States a public forum to espouse its anti-agriculture views. The document speaks for itself in this regard. On page 2, the document states:

APHIS [the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] representatives believe that the Humane Society's intent is to [promote and] position the organization to be recognized nationally as influencing APHIS policy on critical and sensitive welfare issues.

After reading that statement, it becomes clear that the Department of Agriculture is catering to an outside organization instead of relying on the advice of animal scientists at our land grant universities or even at the Department of Agriculture. If the Department of Agriculture was interested in science, why would it allow an animal rights organization to steer its agenda? Why wouldn't APHIS simply request the latest animal research from scientists across the country to make sure its guidance is up to date?

In addition to catering to HSUS, in planning this forum the Department of Agriculture APHIS is precluding input from members of the agricultural industry it is supposed to promote. The memo states:

HSUS and other welfare advocacy groups would be invited to participate in a preplanning meeting for the forum with senior leaders from Wildlife Services, Animal Care, and Veterinary Services. These groups would have input into the topics to be discussed, potential speakers for topics, dates and times for the forum, how the forum should run, etc.

That is quoting from the memo. No mention in the memo is made of asking any agricultural organization or animal scientists for preplanning assistance. According to the memo, HSUS is going to set the agenda for this forum. Even if the agricultural industry is later invited to the event, Agriculture would have the cards already stacked against them.

I believe it is important for most Americans to understand that HSUS is not your local animal shelter. HSUS is a national lobbying organization that spends most of its budget to lobby against farmers and ranchers who provide us with food or clothing that we enjoy. In fact, tax documents show that HSUS spends less than 1 percent of its budget on grants to animal shelters. Given these facts, you would have to wonder why the Department of Agriculture is giving this organization this platform and shunning producer organizations. This is one more demonstration that this organization is no real friend of rural America or the American farmer and rancher.

My purpose this morning is to inform my fellow Senators of this troubling development at USDA and to put the Secretary on notice that this type of conduct from the Department is unacceptable.

The Department's mission statement reads as follows:

We provide leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, and related issues based upon sound public policy, the best available science, and efficient management.

USDA should live up to its mission statement and work to promote agriculture, not work against farmers' and ranchers' best interests and, I would say, not work against the best interests of the consumers of food in this country. Going forward, I will do my best to make sure the Department of Agriculture adheres to its mission statement.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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