Homeland Security Department: U.S. Department of Agriculture Issues

Publication Date: December 2002

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

Type:

Abstract:

On November 25, 2002, President Bush signed into law a bill establishing a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which officially will come into being on January 23, 2003. The President originally proposed (in June 2002) that all of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) including the Plum Island Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostics Laboratory be transferred into the new Department's Office of Border and Transportation Security to support its counter-terrorism mission.

APHIS is responsible for protecting U.S. agriculture from foreign pests and diseases and posts inspectors at about 125 ports of entry around the country. Border inspection activities account for an estimated 60% of APHIS's staff and 30% of its budget. The remaining resources are devoted to a wide range of domestic activities, e.g., coordinating animal disease and plant pest control and eradication programs in the states, providing technical trade dispute advice and resolution, and enforcing animal welfare laws, to name just a few.

The House Agriculture Committee recommended changes to the President's proposal (H.Res. 449) that reflected the concerns of a wide spectrum of the U.S. agriculture community, which feared that transferring all of APHIS out of USDA would seriously hamper the agency's considerable domestic, non-border activities. The House Select Committee on Homeland Security incorporated these changes into an amended version of the President's proposal, which it reported out and the full House passed in July 2002 (H.R. 5005). The amended proposal specified that only the APHIS border inspection employees would be transferred to DHS, and that the USDA Secretary would retain considerable authority over their activities and funding. The bill also included the transfer of the Plum Island lab to DHS. The Senate homeland security bill, S. 2452, originally would have transferred border inspection and quarantine functions, authorities, employees, and assets to the new department, but not the Plum Island facility. However, the Senate acceded to the House language on the APHIS provisions before the full Senate passed its version of H.R. 5005 on November 19.

Section 421 of P.L. 107-296 authorizes the transfer of no more than 3,200 APHIS border inspection personnel to DHS, along with the Plum Island lab. Plant and animal quarantine functions, as well as all other APHIS program activities, are to remain in USDA. Some differences of opinion still exist concerning the Plum Island lab transfer. Supporters maintain that the new department needs the lab's foreign animal disease diagnostic capabilities to detect potential bioterrorism, while opponents argue that the lab's research on behalf of the U.S. livestock sector may be hampered by its top-secret designation.

This report covers the background and policy issues related to the Act establishing the DHS and its implementation and will be updated as necessary.