USDA leery of moving units to Homeland Security Department

Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said last week she is "very supportive of this bold move by the president" to create a Homeland Security Department, but that it would be "premature" to speculate on whether all of the functions of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the federal laboratory at New York's Plum Island would be transferred to it.

Veneman also said there have been "no discussions at this point" about the creation of a single food safety agency out of the activities of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service and FDA.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has mentioned the possibility of creating a single food safety agency several times, but the food processing industry has vigorously opposed the idea.

A top aide to House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, questioned why the Bush proposal did not include any functions of FSIS or FDA, or USDA's Grain, Packers and Stockyards Administration, which also does inspections.

The only laboratory mentioned in the White House document was the Plum Island facility, which does research on foreign agricultural diseases. But Veneman acknowledged Friday that both APHIS and USDA's Agricultural Research Service have operations at some other federal laboratories.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom had written a letter to Veneman saying that he fears transferring APHIS could "disconnect" it from the rest of agriculture, according to an aide. The aide said the letter was written with the assistance of Maxwell Lee, a Louisiana state employee who is president of the U.S. Animal Health Association, a veterinary group.