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Senator Akaka. At this time I will ask some general questions 

 to be answered by all of you, including those in the first panel. Will 

 the first panel please return. The second panel may remain at the 

 table. 



The fundamental question for Congress to consider is whether we 

 need a more stringent and comprehensive national policy on the in- 

 troduction and management of harmful alien species. The next 

 question is whether current laws can be modified to achieve a com- 

 prehensive scheme to prevent the introduction or spread of these 

 noxious weeds and pests. 



While the answer to the first question — Do we need a more com- 

 prehensive policy?— may seem obvious, the answer to the second 

 question—Do we tinker with the existing laws or start fi-om 

 scratch? — is a more challenge inquiry. 



I would like to ask Dr. Campbell to respond to these questions, 

 and others on the panel can State their views following hers Dr 

 Campbell? 



Ms. Campbell. Thank you, Senator, for giving me the hot potato. 

 I have come to the reluctant conclusion that tinkering with existing 

 laws is probably going to be more effective. I am reluctant about 

 saying that because it is a Nationwide problem that crosses all 

 boundaries of agency jurisdiction, political jurisdiction, type of spe- 

 cies jurisdiction. But I think we have had several experiences over 

 the last 2 decades of trying to move the Forest Service to the Inte- 

 rior Department, move the marine species system into — put all liv- 

 ing organisms under the same Secretary. None of these has ever 

 gone anywhere. And I am reluctant to wait while we try to restruc- 

 ture the Federal Government. 



So I think that we should build on existing statutes. The Federal 

 Noxious Weeds Act, there are detailed proposals for amendment 

 that would go a long way, although not all the way, to answering 

 these problems. In some other areas that I work on, for example, 

 the tree pest problem, I do not think it is a statutory problem. I 

 think it is an agency will problem, and I think that is something 

 that oversight hearings and expressions of interest from here on 

 the Hill can help out with. 



There are very definitely some national issues that must be faced 

 by anybody who is trying to deal with this problem, and I would 

 say that the first one is one you have already identified, the lack 

 of awareness. And I would hope that with greater attention to eco- 

 system management, with the formation of the National biological 

 survey, with the Forest Service doing its own attempt to define eco- 

 system management, and probably similar things going on in the 

 marine agencies that I am unaware of, now is the time for the Fed- 

 eral agencies to use their access to media publications of their own 

 and to the press generally to educate people about ecosystems and 

 the damages caused to them by various factors, including explicitly 

 exotic species. 



The other major issue which we have danced around so far 

 today, really, is the fact that there are economic interests that ben- 

 efit from these introductions, and they are no doubt poised to fight 

 efforts to control them. And we are going to have to gather our 

 strengths and our arguments and go out and start negotiating with 

 these folks if we hope to make progress. 



