Sen. Pat Roberts

en. Pat Roberts has long been an expert on the intricacies of agriculture policy. In recent years, he has also emerged as a leader on issues relating to the safety of the nation's food supply. Combining his experience on the House Agriculture Committee, where he served from 1981 to 1996, including a stint as chairman, with his current work as chairman of both the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Armed Services Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, the 67-year-old senator advocated sweeping bioterrorism legislation that President Bush signed into law in June 2002. It includes funding to develop a rapid-response strategy to deal with threats to the agriculture industry.

As chairman of the Emerging Threats Subcommittee in 1999, Roberts held the first hearings that focused specifically on the threat of agro-terrorism. He made the case that urban centers are not the only high-risk targets; rural areas, rich in agriculture, are also vulnerable.

Roberts, who graduated from Kansas State University, is a Topeka native and a member of a venerable GOP family. He was a top aide to Rep. Keith Sebilius for a dozen years before winning his boss's seat when Sebilius retired in 1980. Roberts was elected to the Senate in 1996.

Agriculture Department officials and Midwestern farmers applaud Roberts's outspoken warnings about the ongoing danger to agriculture. He has emphasized, for example, that the former Soviet Union developed extensive agents designed to target U.S. agricultural sites. Those agents continue to be housed in unsecured facilities, Roberts has warned.

One observer said, "You don't have to be a genius or well trained to [introduce] something like foot-and-mouth disease, and do it in five or six areas of the country and basically wipe out most of the livestock industry in the United States." The observer added that Roberts appreciates the devastating economic impact of such an attack and is educating his colleagues about the threat.