26 



that the tests were performed but you are not willing to take a 

 Mississippi inspector at his word, and I would love for you to ex- 

 plain that. 

 Mr. Billy. I believe that is not the case. 

 Mr. Taylor of Mississippl I would differ. 



Mr. Billy. We audit State programs and the foreign programs, 

 and we use the same criteria as laid out in the National Shellfish 

 Sanitation Program and require that molluscan shellfish that enter 

 interstate commerce conform to the same set of requirements that 

 are spelled out in the national program. 



Mr. Taylor of Mississippi. But that is my whole point. We are 

 strictly dealing with a person's word here. Now, it is a heck of a lot 

 easier for you to follow up on whether or not Mississippi is inspect- 

 ing than Korea and we all know that areas that may be clean 

 today after a heavy rainfall won't be suitable tomorrow. 



It is pretty easy to see after a heavy rain whether people from 

 Washington or Maryland or Mississippi or Louisiana are closing 

 the reefs for the day and it is pretty easy to tell what day they 

 were harvested since the tag says the day they were harvested and 

 what route they came off of. 



How do you go through all of these things when you are talkmg 

 about a country halfway across the world, and is this really fair to 

 our people? 



Mr. Billy. The way we approach that is, as part of the National 

 Shellfish Sanitation Program, the responsible shellfish authority is 

 required to keep records that show the opening and closing of the 

 shellfish beds consistent with the criteria that are contained in the 

 national program. 



So when we go to Korea, which we do, and we audit their pro- 

 gram 



Mr. Taylor of Mississippi. Daily? 



Mr. Billy. Not daily, nor do we go to any State and audit their 

 program daily, but when we audit the programs, we look and deter- 

 mine whether, in fact, we see the kind of pattern that is appropri- 

 ate for monitoring the growing waters and proper closures when 

 that is necessary because of extensive rainfall or any other type of 

 problem. 



Mr. Taylor of Mississippi. Why not just a simple test to the fin- 

 ished product for all concerned? 



And then number two, Mr. Chairman, is, you know, we have a 

 situation throughout the country with rare exception to where 

 most States have a limited waterfront and in almost every one of 

 these States you end up having inland versus coastal fights in the 

 State legislature as to the funding of these programs. 



My State is an example. Alabama has two coastal counties. Lou- 

 isiana has a minimum of coastal counties. It is pretty universal. If 

 we are going to have this sort of thing, is the Federal Government 

 willing to pay for the testing? Since I think you will find by and 

 large that most States have more inland areas than coastal areas 

 and the inland folks are going to say, heck with them, we don't 

 want to pay for that. 



Mr. Billy. It would seem to me that since the resources we are 

 talking about — molluscan shellfish occur by and large in the State 

 waters, and bring a 



