Gulf Coast lawmakers have ramped up efforts to keep catfish inspections under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Gannett Louisiana reports.
Lawmakers say the USDA, which took over the inspection job from the Food and Drug Administration earlier this year, does a better job protecting consumers against contaminated catfish from foreign countries, particularly Vietnam.
The lawmakers cite recent USDA actions banning shipments of contaminated catfish.
“Food safety is national security, and we need inspections on every shipment that is coming into this country,’’ says Rep. Ralph Abraham, R-Louisiana, who is also a physician. “So I can’t stress from the physician point of view how important inspections from the USDA are.”
But their opponents have countered with a campaign to push for a House vote on a proposal that would shift inspections back to the Food and Drug Administration. Those on the other side of the debate say the USDA inspection program costs too much and is duplicative.
Lawmakers on both sides have partnered with special-interest groups and have made their case in letters to House leaders and at press conferences.
“We have to make sure that the industry continues to prosper, but also we need to make sure that the product continues to be safe,” says Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi.
Catfish production is a major industry in Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi.
Abraham and Thompson joined Trent Kelly, R-Mississippi; Rick Crawford, R-Arkansas; and Terri Sewell, D-Alabama, today at a bipartisan press conference to urge House leaders to keep catfish inspections under the USDA.
The lawmakers also lobbied for their cause in a letter, which Louisiana Republican Reps. Charles Boustany and Garret Graves also signed, to leaders last month after the Senate approved a resolution by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, that would return the inspections to the FDA.
