Henry Bonilla

Mr. BONILLA

Mr. BONILLA. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BONILLA. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2673) making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other purposes, with a Senate amendment thereto, disagree to the Senate amendment, and agree to the conference asked by the Senate.

Mr. BONILLA. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BONILLA

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I want to empathize that this trip by the congressional delegation was historic. It was a bipartisan trip; and I congratulate my colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis), for putting this incredible group together. It was a large group and it reached across the political spectrum. All of these Members were taking this situation in Iraq very seriously and they were seeking the truth about Iraq. We were all choosing not to just get our information from news media reports that appear each night on the networks or from some of the major newspapers that only take snippets of what is actually happening in Iraq. The truth we discovered was that the 31-member coalition has a solid grip, a real plan on improving and stabilizing a free Iraq by helping rebuild the infrastructure, establishing border security, and also trying to help build a new military for Iraq that would be on our side and would fight side by side with us, Iraqis working with us to create a country that is no longer an outlaw nation and no longer led by a rogue dictator in Iraq. This is important to the safety of our people. And I think the strongest message we have for anyone out there who is mulling this issue over in their mind is this is about creating a safer world, about a safer country, about fighting the war on terrorism in Iraq and winning, because ultimately it will eliminate this haven and this opportunity for terrorists to thrive in that part of the world. I was so impressed that the delegation came back, again, in a bipartisan way and reached the same conclusion. The conclusion says we must win this war on terrorism in Iraq and we must stand with our State Department, with our military, with Mr. Bremer, the administrator who is doing an incredible job in Iraq. We must win this effort. And, again, this is a bipartisan effort that we feel very strongly about, and we will be debating this in the next day as we approve the funds that are necessary to complete this mission.

Mr. BONILLA

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Fiscal Year 2004 Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary Appropriations Act. This bill includes funding which will help protect and strengthen the many communities in the 23rd district. I am particularly pleased that the report to accompany this bill includes language which will be beneficial to those communities which contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons for the detention of inmates. The report originally included language encouraging the Bureau of Prisons to use existing state and private prison capacity to meet their bed space needs. At my request, this language was amended to add local prisons to the list of facilities which the Bureau of Prisons is directed to use. This small but important change will direct the Bureau of Prisons to take advantage of existing locally run detention facilities such as the Reeves County Detention Center. It is my sincere hope that the newest 1,000 bed facility at the Reeves County Detention Center will be utilized by the Bureau of Prisons to provide cost effective housing to federal prisoners. Use of this facility would be particularly beneficial to the Bureau given the low cost of housing inmates in this area. I thank Chairman Frank Wolf for his attention to this matter which is of great importance to Reeves County and saves taxpayer dollars.

Mr. BONILLA

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Thornberry) who has a great expertise on this subject.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I simply want to say that I greatly appreciate the points that the authorizers have made today in opposition to this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), the chairman of the authorizing committee.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that debate on the pending amendment offered by the gentleman from New York (Mr. Ackerman) and any amendments thereto be limited to 30 minutes, to be equally divided and controlled by the proponent and myself, the opponent.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, the purpose of my amendment is to strike a provision from the Conservation Operations account that prohibits the funds in this account from being used to pay for the salaries and expenses of personnel to provide technical assistance for several mandatory conservation programs. This amendment is in keeping with an agreement that I made with the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), in hopes that we can ensure that there are adequate funds available for conservation technical assistance. I would point out that the 2002 Farm Bill included an increase of more than $17 billion for conservation programs, but I am committed to work with the chairman to try to come up with the solution to funding of conservation technical assistance.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, we would be happy to have our staffs work together on that. Again, just hearing about this amendment at this time, it is not realistic to say we are going to guarantee a solution, but I think that the history that we have on this subcommittee to try to work with Members to work through these problems is real, and we would be happy to do that.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I am happy to yield.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Once again I want to reiterate that often times in this town, unfortunately, truth and substance are set aside and emotional pleas are made in order to advance a certain cause. The opposition to this amendment is supported strongly. The opposition is strongly supported by thousands, millions of red-blooded Americans out there who are either producers or they are part of the processing of meat. They are running grocery stores in neighborhoods all over the country. They do not want this provision implemented until it can be studied further and analyzed and done the right way. And again ultimately if this is implemented, the bills at the grocery store, there will be sticker shock in many of the grocery aisles out there as Americans wonder what happened; how did Congress implement such a libelous costly regulation so quickly without even taking the time to do so. And let us also understand that any producer out there can now put labels on whatever they would like. There is an implication here somehow that there is some prohibition now on putting a label on any meat product. They can do that now today anytime they want. Also the implication somehow that this is going to threaten our food supply, I am delighted that many of the authorizers have stepped forward today in a bipartisan way to state clearly this is about marketing, this is not about any kind of food-safety issue. This is, again, a 1-year prohibition on implementation or promulgation or developing of any regulations. So, again, the misinformation that has been presented that this is somehow an effort to kill this permanently is misguided. This appropriations bill simply runs for 1 year. Finally, I would like to state very clearly that the Bush administration, the administration has put out a statement saying that the administration supports the committee's position on country-of- origin labeling for meat or meat products. So there is strong bipartisan support for our position on this issue. Everyone, again, from the chairman of the authorizing committee; the ranking member; the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus; the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson) of the Congressional Black Caucus, again across the board the widespread support that we have on our side in taking a position I think is very clear. And, again, if we would look at the substance in truth about what we are debating here, we would hope to defeat this amendment resoundingly. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I have no requests for time, and I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes).

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. (Mr. BONILLA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) as a demonstration of strong bipartisan support in opposition to this amendment.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to bring before the House today the fiscal year 2004 appropriations bill for Agriculture, Rural Development, the Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies. My goal this year has been to produce a bipartisan bill, and I believe we have done a good job in reaching that goal. The Subcommittee began work on this bill with the submission of the President's Budget on February 3rd. We had ten public hearings beginning on February 26th, and we completed our hearings on March 20th. The transcripts of these hearings, the Administration's official statements, the detailed budget requests, several thousand questions for the record and the statements of Members and the public are all contained in eight hearing volumes. The Subcommittee and full Committee marked up the bill on June 17th and June 25th, respectively. We have tried very hard to accommodate the requests of Members, and to provide increases for critical programs. We received more than 2,380 individual requests for specific spending, from almost every member of the House. Reading all of the mail I received, I can confirm to you that the interest in this bill is completely bipartisan. However, I would point out that my own support for a member's needs is dependent on that member's support of the Committee in general, and of this bill in particular. This bill does have very limited increases over fiscal year 2003, or over the budget request, for programs that have always enjoyed strong bipartisan support. Those increases include: Agricultural Research Service, $39 million above the request. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, $38 million above last year, and $31 million above the request. Food Safety and Inspection Service, $30 million above last year. Farm Service Agency, $33 million above last year. Natural Resources Conservation Service, $23 million over last year. Rural Community Advancement Program, $223 million above the request. Food and Drug Administration, $14 million over last year. Mr. Chairman, we all refer to this bill as an agriculture bill, but it does far more than assisting basic agriculture. It also supports human nutrition, the environment, and food, drug and medical safety. This is a bill that will deliver benefits to every one of our constituents every day, no matter what kind of district they represent. I would say to all Members that they can support this bill and tell all of their constituents that they voted to improve their lives while maintaining fiscal responsibility. The bill is a bipartisan product with a lot of hard work and input from both sides of the aisle. I would like to thank the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young), and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), who serves as the distinguished chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Appropriations. I would also like to thank all my subcommittee colleagues: the gentleman from New York (Mr. Walsh); the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Kingston); the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Nethercutt); the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Latham); the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson); the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode); the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood); the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro); the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey); the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr); and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd). In particular, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), the distinguished ranking member of the subcommittee, for all her good work on this bill this year and the years in the past. Mr. Chairman I would like to include at this point in the Record tabular material relating to the bill. [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH14JY03.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH14JY03.002 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH14JY03.003 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH14JY03.004 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH14JY03.005 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH14JY03.006 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH14JY03.007 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH14JY03.008 Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. BONILLA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill (H.R. 2673) making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other purposes; and pending that motion, Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that general debate be confined to the bill, and be limited to not to exceed 1 hour, the time to be equally divided and controlled by the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) and myself.

Mr. BONILLA

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. BONILLA. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the further consideration of the bill (H.R. 2673) making appropriations for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004, and for other purposes.