Mr. AKAKA. Mr President, I have come to the floor again to speak about the ability of the United States to prevent and respond to a terrorist attack on American agriculture, a topic that I believe deserves more attention from the Congress and the Administration.

That is why I commend the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry for holding a hearing on agroterrorism last week. This was their first hearing on the subject, and I welcome their interest because I have been pursuing the passage of legislation on agriculture security for the past three years.

I first introduced agriculture security legislation, S. 2767, the Agriculture Security Preparedness Act, which was referred to the Agriculture Committee, in the 107th Congress. Unfortunately, it was not acted upon in that Congress. I reintroduced my legislation in the 108th Congress and again in the 109th. I am pleased that S. 573, the Agriculture Security Assistance Act, was included in S. 975, the Project Bioshield Act of 2005, and I thank the bill's chief sponsor, Senator Lieberman, for that inclusion.

The strong potential for the American food supply system to be a target of terrorist attack and the severe repercussions such an attack would cause are widely accepted among experts. At the July 20th Agriculture Committee hearing, Mr. John Lewis, Deputy Assistant Director, Counterterrorism Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), testified, "Most people do not equate terrorist attacks with agroterrorism. But the threat is real, and the impact could be devastating."

Another witness, Dr, Robert Brackett, Director, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), added, "A terrorist attack on the food supply could have both severe public health and economic consequences, while damaging the public's confidence in the food we eat."

According to the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the United States' food and fiber system accounts for approximately 12 percent of our Gross Domestic Product and employs 17 percent of the U.S. workforce. Yet the infrastructure that composes this sector of the economy, which is central to American prosperity, is often not viewed as critical as power lines, bridges, or ports. We cannot underestimate our dependence on America's breadbasket.

On March 9, 2005, the same day I introduced my two agriculture security bills, S. 572, the Homeland Security Food and Agriculture Act, and S. 573, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report I requested entitled, "Much is Being Done to Protect Agriculture from a Terrorist Attack, but Important Challenges Remain" (GAO-05-214). The GAO report reviews the current state of agriculture security in the United States and points to a number of key areas where improvement is necessary, such as the inability of USDA to deploy animal disease vaccines in 24 hours and the lack of foreign animal disease knowledge among USDA-certified veterinarians.

GAO also confirmed information I had received from the National Association of Agriculture Employees that the agricultural mission of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was insufficiently prioritized. GAO found that the number of agricultural inspections at U.S. borders had declined by 3.4 million since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took over the border inspection responsibility from USDA.

In February 2005, I wrote to then-DHS Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson expressing my concern over the decline in border inspections because I know how important they are to the economy of Hawaii -- home to more endangered species than any other state. In response, I received a commitment from DHS to hire additional agriculture specialists at CBP to ensure the agricultural mission does not go unmet.

Also noted in the GAO report were shortcomings in DHS's federal coordination of national efforts to protect against agroterrorism. The federal agencies involved in agriculture security -- DHS, USDA, FBI, and FDA, to name a few -- claim they are working closely with each other. However one only need look at the June 2004 incident in Washington State, where 18 cattle developed chromium contamination, to see that there are communication gaps at the federal level. Agroterrorism was suspected, yet neither USDA nor DHS were notified.

In May 2004, representatives from the FBI, FDA, and USDA gave a presentation at an agroterrorism conference in Kansas City, Missouri on lessons learned from the Washington outbreak which included a slide stating that the following agencies should be contacted if agroterrorism is suspected: a state's Department of Agriculture, FDA, USDA, FBI, local law enforcement, and state and county public health officials.

Why wasn't the Department of Homeland Security on the list? It is apparent that federal coordination remains inadequate if notification of DHS is considered unnecessary by other responding agencies.

To ensure a comprehensive and coordinated approach to agroterrorism, my bills address many of the concerns raised by GAO and others. The Homeland Security Food and Agriculture Act will:

• Increase communication and coordination between DHS and state, local, and tribal homeland security officials regarding agroterrorism;
• Ensure agriculture security is included in state, local, and regional emergency response plans; and
• Establish a task force of state and local first responders that will work with DHS to identify best practices in the area of agriculture security. The Agriculture Security Assistance Act will:
• Provide financial and technical assistance to states and localities for agroterrorism preparedness and response;
• Increase international agricultural disease surveillance and inspections of imported agricultural products;
• Require that certified veterinarians be knowledgeable in foreign animal diseases; and
• Require that USDA study the costs and benefits of developing a more robust animal disease vaccine stockpile.

Mr. President, I look forward to working with the Agriculture Committee as agriculture security legislation moves forward. As Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, I will continue to make agroterrorism a priority for the federal government, and I ask my colleagues to join me in this quest. Thank you Mr. President.