54 



Do you have any problem with that? 



Mr. Wessel. You mean a problem with 



Mr. Peterson. With them doing this. 



Mr. Wessel. The Federal Grain Inspection Service being in- 

 volved? 



Mr. Peterson. Yes. 



Mr. Wessel. I personally have no problem with that. We do have 

 the authority to sample imported foods from any country. 



But if it is the desire of this subcommittee that FGIS should be 

 involved as well, fine. I have no problem with that. 



Mr. Peterson. You don't have the resources, if we put in a bill, 

 to say that the FDA had to inspect all of the grain coming in? You 

 wouldn't have the resources to do that, would you? 



Mr. Wessel. I am not sure if the Federal Grain Inspection Serv- 

 ice also has the resources. But this is something we would have to 

 take under advisement in terms of what you would specifically in- 

 troduce, by way of language, in the bill. 



Mr. Peterson. From what we know, 85 percent of the grain that 

 comes in is already inspected by the countries that send it in, so — 

 what we are requiring in this — have you seen my legislation? 



Mr. Wessel. Yes. 



Mr. Peterson. What we are requiring is that they do one addi- 

 tional test, that is, for vomitoxin; and then that would be accepted. 



So all we are talking about is 15 percent of the imported grain 

 and trying to figure out some way — an efficient way — to get that 

 tested without causing a big problem. And it just seems like the 

 most logical way to do it would be to have the Grain Inspection 

 Service probably delegate this to the States like they do with a lot 

 of things and have them test at certain border points. 



What we are trying to do is accomplish this in a way that we 

 don't get tangled up over in the Energy and Commerce Committee. 

 I have talked to Mr. Dingell, and his concern is that you folks be 

 happy. So I am trying to work this out so that you are 



Mr. Wessel. Again, we have excellent cooperation and working 

 relationship with the Federal Grain Inspection Service, and we do 

 talk to each other, and we do cooperate with each other. We are 

 not in what I would call a turf battle. 



Mr. Peterson. Do you have a position on what my language 



Mr. Wessel. No, sir. I think— like I said earlier, any bill of this 

 nature would need to have the full agency consider it. 



Mr. Peterson. How long will that take? 



Mr. Wessel. Our turnaround time on a bill introduced by Con- 

 gress is fairly quick. 



Mr. Peterson. The bill was introduced this morning. We, in the 

 last week, got an indication from Mr. de la Garza that he would 

 consider this bill on a timely basis. 



But I do think we need to get you folks and FGIS to take a posi- 

 tion or give us your thoughts about it in order for us to move 

 ahead. So the sooner you can do that, the better. 



You can do that within a week or two? 



Mr. Wessel. I can not make a promise as to how soon we could 

 comment. 



