21 



Foster might be the more appropriate ones. This is extending, Mr. 

 Chairman, to some extent your question. It appears that each 

 agency already has some type of seafood safety program. I would 

 like to hear from either of you as to why your particular agency 

 should be in charge of the mandatory Federal program, assuming 

 one is approved, and how your agency currently distinguishes itself 

 from the others that may be ongoing now. 



Mr. Billy. Maybe I could take the first shot at that. I don't think 

 it is a matter of who should be in charge. I think that both the Na- 

 tional Marine Fisheries Service and FDA complement each other 

 in terms of our background and expertise and legal authorities to 

 address this issue of seafood safety. I spent the first 27 years of my 

 career working for the National Marine Fisheries Service. I am 

 very familiar with their programs. 



Now that I have joined FDA, it is clear to me that they are syn- 

 ergistic in terms of what we can bring to the table to address the 

 issues of seafood safety, so I think that that is the approach or the 

 idea that we should be thinking about is how do we work together 

 to get this job done. 



Dr. Foster. Yes, I agree completely. I think that the two pro- 

 grams absolutely complement each other. Before we get to the 

 point of thinking about legislation, we should also consider wheth- 

 er or not some of the problems are simply that none of us are doing 

 our jobs quite as well as we could and that we do have authority 

 that we haven't exercised. 



Mr. Coble. Are the current programs presently being operated 

 duplicative? To what extent is there any overlapping or duplicating 

 result? 



Mr. Billy. I believe it is minimal at most, and perhaps nonexist- 

 ent. We have, as Nancy mentioned in her testimony, a number of 

 memorandum of understanding with — between the two agencies 

 addressing coordinated research, coordinated inspection activities, 

 coordinated involvement with the National Shellfish Sanitation 

 Program, and coordinated enforcement, and through those mecha- 

 nisms we work very closely together to carry out our respective re- 

 sponsibilities, so I think you will find that there is a lot of coopera- 

 tion and not a lot of duplication. 



Mr. Coble. Do you want to add to that. Dr. Foster? 



Dr. Foster. No, not really, just to agree again. I am sure that if 

 you looked really closely you might find something, but I think it is 

 minimal. 



Mr. Coble. Finally, Mr. Chairman, one more question, and I 

 think the answer to this question will be in the negative, but I 

 don't know with certainty without asking it. Is the United States 

 Department of Agriculture involved in any way with what you all 

 are doing as far as the safety program is concerned? As far as sea- 

 food goes? 



Dr. Foster. We do use Department of Agriculture inspectors in 

 our program through an agreement and consult with them when- 

 ever appropriate. 



Mr. Billy. The answer is, no, with respect to the Food and Drug 

 Administration. With the exception that the USD A chairs the co- 

 ordinating Committee on Aquaculture that is responsible for co- 



