Marcy Kaptur

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I just want to thank the chairman for his support of our very able colleague from New York who has such a persevering record on attempting to get the American Heritage Rivers Initiative fully operational for the city of New York and for rivers immediately adjacent to and in his district, so that these local river conservation plans become more than plans, but, in fact, help us to preserve the precious fresh water resource that is ours alone in this quadrant of the United States. I would have to just say as the ranking member on the subcommittee, no Member has fought harder for this program than the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey), and the people of New York have sent the right man here to represent them.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I wanted to especially thank my dear colleagues, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis), for reserving time this afternoon and checking in as this debate ensued on the floor in order to be able to join me in this debate. Let me say that our amendment proposes that as a part of our national energy strategy that biofuels and bioenergy be more than an afterthought but, in fact, be a central pillar of helping America reach a renewable energy future. If you look at America's trade accounts, our chief strategic vulnerability relates to imported fuels. We are willing to go to war, to send our young men and women to war, for oil, but we are not willing to invest the dollars here at home to propel ourselves into a more energy self-sufficient future. When the President of the United States and new Vice President produced a national energy report with solutions for the future, there was one gaping hole: Not a single recommendation relates to renewables and the use of biofuels, what we can take off our fields and forests, in order to have ethanol, biodiesel, and other such fuels made a part of America's energy future. We declare an emergency, we set aside $500 million, and we say that biofuels are as important as natural gas, they are as important as petroleum, they are as important as any other fuel, whether it is windmills or turbines or whatever, in order to put America on a sound energy footing. We want to make sure that our message is heard loudly and clearly. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), who has experience in this area, and again I express gratitude for his coming to the floor.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, we believe that that third amendment was accepted; voice voted.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I intend to withdraw the amendment after a brief discussion due to an understanding with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Bonilla) to look for funds for the celebration of the centennial anniversary of National 4-H as we move toward conference. Also, I do this out of respect for the National 4-H leadership that has committed not to have those funds come at the expense of existing extension programs which are already stretched. Our amendment would provide funding pursuant to an authorization that was approved by the House 2 weeks ago when we voted for S. 657, the National 4-H Program Centennial Initiative. The centennial will occur next year, but planning obviously needs to begin immediately. In fact, the President signed the relevant legislation yesterday. That measure was a companion bill to H.R. 1388, introduced by the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Ganske). That measure authorized $5 million for the National 4-H Council, with the expectation that those funds would be matched by private contributions, and it also assumed the Secretary could use the Fund for Rural America to finance some of the operations. However, there is money for neither of these options in the bill. Now, I think every American has been touched in some way by 4-H. It operates in over 3,000 counties in each of our States and provides truly constructive opportunities to young men and women in both rural and urban areas. Just the fact that this magnificent organization has existed for a century is something all Americans can truly celebrate. But should this appropriation bill move forward without at least beginning to address the funding issue, there is the risk that the support for the centennial initiative would come too late. The amount today that is in my amendment, $500,000, is only one-tenth of the amount that is necessary, but it would get the activity going and demonstrates we are serious about full support. Over the coming months, between now and the final conference on the bill, proponents will be in a position to work to identify the right amount of resources needed for the program and to secure additional funds for this bill. While today's amendment suggests that $500,000 out of existing extension funds could be used, the long-term intention is to obtain an increase for extension to finance the activity. So, Mr. Chairman, in withdrawing this amendment, let me just say that this Member, and I think the entire membership of the House, in voting for this centennial celebration, would want to assure the success of all activities related to it. The planning that must begin this year and all the celebrations in the year 2002, will touch thousands and thousands of lives of young people in our communities and all the good works that they do. The 4-H deserve the full support of this Congress, and we look forward to working with the chairman as we move toward conference.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman very much for his openness and willingness to work with us as we move toward conference. Amendment Offered by Ms. Pelosi

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I want to compliment the wonderful, wonderful gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) and the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton). Would I not know that the two of them would do something this significant? What they are proposing is only to continue what the House had agreed to do in conference last year, and that is to use the food power of this country to help alleviate suffering around the world, and certainly the plague of HIV/ AIDS. Their effort uses the power of food in the most creative way possible. Yet the sponsors of the amendment and all who support it should keep in mind that the President's budget proposes a review of the 416 programs with an eye toward reducing their availability. So, those who utilize and understand these programs need to be prepared to speak out before these programs are eliminated or reduced. I want to thank the gentlewomen for bringing this up before the full House to make sure that we effectively use the dollars that are there, and not permit the food surplus of this country to be subscribed in a way that would not be made available to those who truly need it globally. I support them in their efforts.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Ms. KAPTUR. I am.

Ms. KAPTUR. My request is to strike the last word.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I would like to inquire as to our remaining time on both sides, please.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me, and I want to commend her for her terrific efforts in subcommittee and in full committee, and now on the floor, to get appropriate attention to the important question of food safety in our country. It really is staggering to think that 76 million Americans every year have some type of food-borne illness. As modern a society as we are, we question, why does this happen? Part of the reason for it is because our food system, in many ways, is moving very far away from home. It used to be that you knew the farmer where your eggs came from. You knew the farmer who grew your strawberries. There was local accountability. You knew where your chickens came from. You knew where your beef for your sausage came from, because the people lived in your community and you went to the stores and the outlets that they operated. Mr. Chairman, today we live in a very industrialized food system, and industrialized food processing has not necessarily brought with it a safer food system. In fact, last year, 315 Food and Drug Administration regulated food products were recalled, the most recalls in 1 year since the mid-1980s. It was a 36 percent increase above the average, and part of the reason for that is, even though we have certain scientific methods in place, the way in which our food is processed actually encourages food- borne illness. For example, in the area of beef, if you go into some of our slaughter houses and meat-packing plants now, which are very, very mechanized, often, an intestine will be pierced and E. coli will be driven into flesh in the animal that is ultimately then cut up and sold on the supermarket shelf. Mr. Chairman, some of that is not detected by the human eye. Industrial slaughtering is different than when animals were cut by hand and there were not so many animals slaughtered per day and there was closer oversight. It has never been easy to work in a meat processing facility. At the beginning of the 20th century, books were written about what was going on inside these meat-packing plants, and through the 20th century, we tried to improve the situation. In poultry, for example, if you look at the USDA inspectors who are on a line, the rate at which birds move by them has become so fast, the human eye cannot necessarily detect the different types of salmonella and pfiesteria and other bacterial microbes that can infect the meat product. In spite of the fact that we seem to be so modern, some of the very procedures that we have as well as the fact that food is grown and processed very far from home has made the system in some ways extremely vulnerable. It is surprising to us also that in a country as bountiful as ours that we have increasing amounts of food imports. Over the last 4 years alone, imported foods sold in the United States have increased by 50 percent, from 2.7 million items in 1997 to 4.1 million last year alone. But of all the foreign imports coming in here, as the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) has accurately described, only 1 percent are inspected. When most people get sick from food poisoning, they do not report it to the Centers for Disease Control. A lot of times they do not really realize what is wrong with them until a couple of days later. At the local level, there is not an automatic reporting upstream to the CDC. So a lot of the food poisoning goes unreported. The DeLauro amendment would provide additional funds for food inspection. There is $98 million more for imported food inspection, which we so desperately need at our borders; $73 million for more FDA inspections of domestic food processors. Many processors do not even get inspected once a year; sometimes it takes up to 2 years. The FDA actually is the agency where 75 percent of the problem is, 75 percent of the outbreaks and problems relate to FDA-inspected facilities. This means inspection is inadequate. The DeLauro amendment also would provide $50 million for USDA food safety and inspection service to carry out new procedures and regulations for meat and poultry food products. For example, USDA is currently addressing port of entry procedures and the development of contingency plans for emergency breakouts. Remember, we had that problem of strawberries in Michigan causing children to become so ill. To this day, we were never actually able to track back where the problem with those strawberries came from. We knew they were processed in southern California. Their origin was Mexico, but we just could not track it back. So I think the DeLauro amendment is more than worthy; it is essential. She has my full support on this. I hope she has the attention of the membership. Let us get this DeLauro amendment incorporated in the final bill that we bring back from the other body.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to say to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee) that I fully support her efforts. I think she has raised an exceedingly important issue for our country. Without question, the nutrition of our children will yield the health of the future generation. The high use of sugar and high fats in the diets of our youth are creating an untenable, extremely unhealthy situation in this country that even the Surgeon General has recognized. One of the hardest challenges we face within the U.S. Department of Agriculture is to get the nutrition part of the agency, which has over half of its budget, to talk to the production side, which is the part the gentlewoman is talking about. That is producers, organic producers, small farmers, must be linked to our local school districts. This has been a tough job. I really support the gentlewoman on her efforts. Her goals of helping our children, I think, are commendable and also getting the Department of Agriculture to see its responsibilities toward our youth by working with farmers who can provide that fresh product in fruits and vegetables, with ethnic and racial sensitivity at the most local of levels, which is where we all live. So I look forward to working with the gentlewoman as we move the bill in the other body and hopefully we can strengthen this measure as we move forward. I thank the gentlewoman so very much for bringing up this very important issue today.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman will yield, I reserve the right, as we move toward conference, to reinject this issue into the debate as we further perfect this bill. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw the amendment.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I wanted to thank the gentlewoman from Missouri for her tremendous leadership on this issue and also the gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. McGovern. The two of them have been vigilant all through our efforts in subcommittee and full committee. I want to thank the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Bonilla, for trying to do as much as he could do. I would hope that we might even consider doing a joint letter to the Secretary as we move toward conference, if that is possible, in order that this program be given the serious attention that it demands at the Department of Agriculture. I want to thank all my colleagues for their tremendous efforts. Also, I understand Senator Dole has gone through a bit of a procedure at the Cleveland Clinic recently. If he is watching this, I hope our remarks make him feel better. I also want to thank Senator McGovern who has been such a stalwart supporter and innovator, a genius really on this program. We thank him for traveling up here recently to join us in a press conference in front of the Capitol. We hope in their stead here today that we do what is necessary to continue this program.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I thank my esteemed colleague the gentleman from New York for yielding me this time and rise in support of his amendment which is a very straightforward and simple amendment to ask FDA to engage itself in the proper labeling of goods that come into this country. In the area of cocoa beans and chocolate, I think we do not often think of where a product's ingredients come from. Mr. Chairman, I include for the Record an article that was published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on June 24 of this year that talks about the cocoa beans that come here to America blended into our product from places like the Ivory Coast. [From the St. Paul Pioneer Press, June 24, 2001] Daloa, Ivory Coast There may be a hidden ingredient in the chocolate cake you baked, the candy bars your children sold for their school fund-raiser or that fudge ripple ice cream cone you enjoyed on Saturday afternoon. Slave labor. Forty-three percent of the world's cocoa beans, the raw material in chocolate, come from small, scattered farms in the poor West African country of Ivory Coast. And on some of the farms, the hot, hard work of clearing the fields and harvesting the crop is done by boys who were sold or tricked into slavery. Most of them are 12 to 16 years old. Some are as young as 9. The slaves live on corn paste and bananas. Some are whipped, beaten and broken like horses to harvest the almond-size beans. The State Department's human rights report last year concluded that some 15,000 children ages 9 to 12 have been sold into forced labor on cotton, coffee and cocoa plantations in northern Ivory Coast in recent years. Aly Diabate was almost 12 when a slave trader promised him a bicycle and $150 a year to help support his poor parents in Mali. He worked for a year and a half for a cocoa farmer who is known as ``Le Gros'' (``The Big Man'') but he said his only rewards were the rare days when Le Gros' overseers or older slaves didn't flog him with a bicycle chain or branches from a cacao tree. Cocoa beans come from pods on the cacao tree. To get the 400 or so beans it takes to make a pound of chocolate, the boys who work on Ivory Coast's cocoa farms cut pods from the trees, slice them open, scoop out the beans, spread them in baskets or on mats and cover them to ferment. They they uncover the beans, put them in the sun to dry, bag them and load them onto trucks to begin the long journey to America or Europe. Aly said he doesn't know what the beans from the cacao tree taste like after they've been processed and blended with sugar, milk and other ingredients. That happens far away from the farm where he worked, in places such as Hershey, Pa., Milwaukee and San Francisco. ``I don't know what chocolate is,'' said Aly. The chocolate chain Americans spend $13 billion a year on chocolate, but most of them are as ignorant of where it comes from as the boys who harvest cocoa beans are about where their beans go. More cocoa beans come from Ivory Coast than from anyplace else in the world. The country's beans are prized for their quality and abundance, and in the first three months of this year, more than 47,300 tons of them were shipped to the United States through Philadelphia and Brooklyn, N.Y., according to the Port Import Export Reporting Service. At other times of the year, Ivory Coast cocoa beans are delivered to Camden, N.J., Norfolk, Va., and San Francisco. From the ports, the beans are shipped to cocoa processors. America's biggest are ADM Cocoa in Milwaukee, a subsidiary of Decatur, Ill.-based Archer Daniels Midland; Barry Callebaut, which has its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland; Minneapolis-based Cargill; and Nestle USA of Glendale, Calif., a subsidiary of the Swiss food giant. But by the time the beans reach the processors, those picked by slaves and those harvested by free field hands have been jumbled together in warehouses, ships, trucks and rail cars. By the time they reach consumers in America or Europe, free beans and slave beans are so thoroughly blended that there is no way to know which chocolate products taste of slavery and which do not. Even the Chocolate Manufacturers Association, a trade group for American chocolate makers, acknowledges that slaves are harvesting cocoa on some Ivory Coast farms. And a 1998 report from UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, concluded that some Ivory Coast farmers use enslaved children, many of them from the poorer neighboring countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo. A report by the Geneva, Switzerland-based International Labor Organization, released June 15, found that trafficking in children is widespread in West Africa. some of the bags were taller than me Aly Diabate and 18 other boys labored on a 494-acre farm, very large by Ivory Coast standards, in the southwestern part of the country. Their days began when the sun rose, which at this time of year in Ivory Coast is a few minutes after 6 a.m. They finished work about 6:30 in the evening, just before nightfall, trudging home to a dinner of burned bananas. A treat would be yams seasoned with saltwater ``gravy.'' After dinner, the boys were ordered into a 24-by-20-foot room, where they slept on wooden planks. The window was covered with hardened mud except for a baseball-size hole to let some air in. ``Once we entered the room, nobody was allowed to go out,'' said Mamadou Traore, a thin, frail youth with serious brown eyes who is 19 now. ``Le Gros gave us cans to urinate. He locked the door and kept the key.'' ``We didn't cry, we didn't scream,'' said Aly. ``We though we had been sold, but we weren't sure.'' The boys became sure one day when Le Gros walked up to Mamadou and ordered him to work harder. ``I bought each of you for 25,000 francs'' (about $35), the farmer said, according to Mamadou. ``So you have to work harder to reimburse me.'' Aly was barely 4 feet tall when he was sold into slavery, and he had a hard time carrying the heavy bags of cocoa beans. ``Some of the bags were taller than me,'' he said. ``It took two people to put the bag on my head. And when you didn't hurry, you were beaten.'' You can still see the faint scars on his back, right shoulder and left arm. ``They said he wasn't working very hard,'' said Mamadou. ``The beatings were a part of my life,'' Aly said. ``Anytime they loaded you with bags and you fell while carrying them, nobody helped you. Instead, they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again. Le Gros, whose name is Lenikpo Yeo, denied that he paid for the boys who worked for him, although Ivory Coast farmers often pay a ``finder's fee'' to someone who delivers workers to them. He also denied that the boys were underfed, locked up at night or forced to work more than 12 hours a day without breaks. He said they were treated well, and that he paid for their medical treatment. ``When I go hunting, when I get a kill, I divide it in half--one for my family and the other for them. Even if I kill a gazelle, the workers come and share it.'' He denied beating any of the boys. ``I've never, ever laid hands on any one of my workers,'' Le Gros said. ``Maybe I called them bad words if I was angry. That's the worst I did.'' Le Gros said a Malian overseer beat one boy who had run away, but he said he himself did not order any beatings. a boy escapes One day early last year, a boy named Oumar Kone was caught trying to escape. One of Le Gros' overseers beat him, said the other boys and local authorities. A few days later, Oumar ran away again, and this time he escaped. He told elders in the local Malian immigrant community what was happening on Le Gros' farm. They called Abdoulaye Macko, who was then the Malian consul general in Bouake, a town north of Daloa, in the heart of Ivory Coasts's cocoa- and coffee-growing region. Macko went to the farm with several police officers, and he found the 19 boys and young men there. Aly, the youngest, was 13. The oldest was 21. ``They were tired, slim, they were not smiling.'' Macko said. ``Except one child was not there. This one, his face showed what was happening. He was sick; he had (excrement) in his pants. He was lying on the ground, covered with cacao leaves because they were sure he was dying. He was almost dead. . . . He had been severely beaten.'' According to medical records, other boys had healed scars as well as open, infected wounds all over their bodies. Police freed the boys, and a few days later the Malian consulate in Bouake sent them all home to their villages in Mali. The sick boy was treated at a local hospital, and then he was sent home, too. Le Gros was charged with assault against children and suppressing the liberty of people. The latter crime carries a five- to 10-year prison sentence and a hefty fine, said Daleba Rouba, attorney general for the region. ``In Ivorian law, and adult who orders a minor to hit and hurt somebody is automatically responsible as if he has committed the act,'' said Rouba. ``Whether or not Le Gros did the beatings himself or ordered somebody, he is liable.'' Le Gros spent 24 days in jail, and today he is a free man pending a court hearing that is scheduled for Thursday. He said the case against Le Gros is weak because the witnesses against him have all been sent back to Mali. ``If the Malian authorizes are willing to cooperate, if they can bring two or three of the children back as witnesses, my case will be stronger,'' Rouba said. Mamadou Diarra, the Malian consul general in Bouake, said he would look into the matter. official responses Child trafficking experts say inadequate legislation, ignorance of the law, poor law enforcement, porous borders, police corruption and a shortage of resources help perpetuate the problem of child slavery in Ivory Coast. Only 12 convicted slave traders are serving time in Ivorian prisons. Another eight, convicted in absentia, are on the lam. Ivorian officials have found scores of enslaved children from Mali and Burkina Faso and sent them home, and they have asked the International Labor Organization, a global workers' rights agency, to help them conduct a child-labor survey that's expected to be completed this year. But they continue to blame the problem on immigrant farmers from Mali and on world cocoa prices that have fallen almost 24 percent since 1996, from 67 cents a pound to 51 cents, forcing impoverished farmers to use the cheapest labor they can find. Ivory Coast Agriculture Minister Alfonse Douaty calls child slavery a marginal ``clandestine phenomenon'' that exists on only a handful of the country's more than 600,000 cocoa and coffee farms. ``Those who do this are hidden, well hidden,'' said Douaty. He said his government is clamping down on child traffickers by beefing up border patrols and law enforcement, and running education campaigns to boost awareness of anti- slavery laws and efforts. Douaty said child labor is Ivory Coast should not be called slavery, because the word conjures up images of chains and whips. He prefers the term ``indentured labor.'' Ivory Coast authorities ordered Le Gros to pay Aly and the other boys a total of 4.3 million African Financial Community francs (about $6,150) for their time as indentured laborers. Aly got 125,000 francs (about $180) for the 18 months he worked on the cocoa farm. Aly bought himself the very thing the trader who enslaved him promised: a bicycle. It has a light, a yellow horn and colorful bottle caps in the spokes. he rides it everywhere. I cannot read the entire article, but I will just read a few sentences, where it indicates 43 percent of the world's cocoa beans come from small scattered farms in poor West African countries like Ivory Coast where harvesting of the crop is done by boys who were sold or tricked into slavery. They talk about 15,000 children ages 9 to 12 sold into forced labor and that it takes 400 or so beans to make one pound of chocolate. The boys who pick these beans do not know what chocolate tastes like because they never have a chance to eat the final product. The beans that they harvest go to places like Hershey, Pennsylvania; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and San Francisco. America's biggest users of these beans are ADM Cocoa in Milwaukee, a subsidiary of Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland; Barry Callebaut, which has its headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland; Minneapolis-based Cargill; and Nestle USA of Glendale, California, a subsidiary of the Swiss food giant. It talks about these boys being beaten and held, being tired, slim with no smiles, and many boys having healed scars as well as open infected wounds all over their bodies. It talks about the reasons that there is no law enforcement in the countries which are the suppliers. And it talks about the amount of money being made by the firms that use this kind of indentured servitude. I think $250,000 out of a multibillion-dollar budget is almost nothing to ask to have proper labeling of a product. If we can have happy faces on carpets that come from the Indian subcontinent, we can certainly have proper labeling of chocolate products that come into this country from places like Ivory Coast. I really want to thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel), who is a member of the Committee on International Relations, for bringing this issue to us. It is always difficult for us to get labeling legislation passed by this subcommittee and full committee, but, my goodness, do we not have a moral responsibility to do this? It is within budget, what he is asking to do. It is asking FDA to meet not only its scientific responsibilities to this country but its moral responsibilities. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Engel amendment and commend the gentleman for bringing this again to the House floor so the American people can understand what is going on.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I want to compliment the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) for taking leadership on this important issue of antimicrobial research. Mr. Chairman, it has been amazing to me among families and friends, staff members and their families back home, how many individuals go into a hospital and are the victims of an infection. In spite of some of the best knowledge we have with modern medicine, yet we find that there is this antimicrobial resistance that in some ways is as a result of the technologies that we brought on board in the 20th century. As we now embark on the 21st century, this research to add funding to help to expedite the action plan to combat antimicrobial resistance is essential. We know that life transforms and that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. I am sure that is the case, that scientists note every day, whether we are talking about HIV-AIDS or whether we are talking about some type of staphylococcus infection which becomes resistant to antibiotics which have been brought on board in years past. We need to know which drugs are being affected most; how, when and why antibiotic drugs are being prescribed. We must educate physicians and the public on the proper use of antibiotics. I have been amazed at people who have taken antibiotics and find their systems having to readjust anywhere from 6 months to a year. Mr. Chairman, I want to compliment the gentleman. The amendment would simply authorize funding for priorities already set by the health agencies of this government. I urge my colleagues for a ``yes'' vote on this important amendment on antimicrobial research. It provides $5 million to the FDA to expedite the carrying out of priority action items designated under an adopted action plan.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I thank him so very much for bringing up this important amendment. I think it is important for the membership to know this does not involve any new money but merely a reallocation of funds within the Food and Drug Administration itself. So this is a very, very worthy amendment. We have had to try to fight in this bill and the bill last year to try to get more attention to the approval of generic drugs, which so many Americans obviously need. They are a lot less expensive. I can remember when Claude Pepper used to stand on this floor trying to get generic drug incentives put into the law. So I want to thank the gentleman from Ohio, as always, taking the leadership on health questions and certainly trying to get medicine to people who need it. In my neighborhood, there are many citizens who make a choice between food and medicine every weekend when they shop at the local supermarket. This will help families like them. We need to get FDA working more quickly. And I am so happy that the gentleman from the Committee on Energy and Commerce has brought this to our attention and has given us additional drive to get additional generic drugs approved. So I fully support his amendment. It is within the budget resolution and within our allocation, and I would urge the membership to support him.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I would just like to say to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis) and to the chairman of the subcommittee that I do believe the gentlewoman has really brought up an issue that we never have considered, never were asked to consider during our regular hearings and so forth. I think this does involve also the authorizing of the Committee on Education and the Workforce since they have jurisdiction over the school lunch program, the free and reduced lunch program, although we have jurisdiction over the expenditures for that. Knowing that some of our military personnel are extremely pressed, even some eligible for food stamps when serving the Government of the United States at points around the world, it would seem to me that we should find a way to encourage the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture to treat our military personnel with the respect that they deserve. I want to compliment the gentlewoman for bringing this issue to the attention of our subcommittee and pledge my own cooperation with her in resolving this in the weeks and months ahead, and certainly also encourage her to testify before the Committee on Education and the Workforce as well as the authorizing Committee on Agriculture. We here on the Committee on Appropriations will continue to work with the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Davis) as we move to conference with the other body.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, just so we understand what is occurring here. I just want to make sure that the gentlewoman from North Carolina will have the opportunity to bring up her amendment at a later time, even if it might be out-of-page order, and it may not be able to come up later today, but maybe when we come back from the 4th of July. Mr. Chairman, we just want to reserve her rights to bring this up and work out whatever needs to be done with the majority.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?