payroll, they qualify for your insurance and all of the burden, then and only then can you run their data through everify and it might come back and can't confirm. if it does that you probably got someone on your hands that can't legally work in the united states. and so youcan't work legally in the united states. you give them time to cure their data and if they can't cure, you have to fire them. with the legislation that i'm hopeful that we're able to bring, probably not this year, next year, to fix e-verify so you can use it on current employees, legacy employees so someone decides i want to clean it up. i have someone who has been five or 10 years, i want a legal work force and run their names through e-verify. why not? why not give the employers a tool? why not let them use e hifere

verify with a prospective employee with a legitimate job offer. we have that under a drug testing law in iowa. if you show up and you want a job, go through all of the hoops and they can say to you, i have gone through all the hoops, you have to take a drug test before we can put you to work. that's what we do in iowa. no complaints, no lawsuits. and i encourage them to do that. we should be able to provide as employers an illegal-free workplace so modernizing e-verify so it can be used on current legacy employees and with a legitimate job offer is a legitimate thing to do. and the third component we need to do, madam speaker, out of this, is we need to clarify wages and benefits to illegals are not deductible for federal income tax purposes and doing

that allows the i.r.s. to run the social security numbers and the information data of the employees of the audited company through e-verify. and if they come back, that they can't lawfully work in the united states and we'll give the employee'ses safe harbor then they can den eye the business expense. this is the new idea act. the net result is this. if you are paid out $1 million in wages and let's say, multiple millions, but the i.r.s. has determined that the wages have gone to illegals, they can deny that as a business expense. we know if that happens that goes on the profit side of the ledger and becomes taxable as income. you have incomes tax to pay on $1 million. and the corporate income tax on

that as a profit, plus the interest, plus the penalty, calculates out to be, if you are a $10 an hour illegal, you become a $16 an hour illegal. and when you get to that point, now you have lots of employers have decided to clean up their work force and hire only legals and that shuts off the magnet here in the united states. last thing i want to do before i yield is, i want to sell off all of this property that the united states has taken over and nationalized, including chrysler and general motors. what is the balance of my time? the speaker pro tempore: four minutes. mr. king: i yield two minutes to mr. bilbray and then two minutes to dr. broun. mr. bilbray: i think there are a lot of issues that are controversial and a lot of

people see democrats and republicans disagreeing on. and i want to compliment the gentleman from iowa, he has introduced the most logical and most american bill when it comes to the immigration issue. this is something that really hits to the core of the problem and doesn't blame the immigrant, but goes to the source of illegal immigration and that is illegal employers who are exporting them. and one place that democrats and republicans should be able to work together, that all americans can agree on, that this congress this month should eliminate the absurd situation where illegal employers get to write off the expense of hiring people illegally in this country and have the federal government subsidize their commission of a crime when they hire someone who is not legal. your bill is right to the core what the american people are asking for. they are saying, come on, why

don't we come together in washington and do the right thing and eliminate the absurd situations. it is so appropriate for the time. and if there is nothing else we can agree on, i would like to see that we should agree that the taxpayer should not be subsidizing the employment of illegal aliens and exploittation of those workers and i thank the gentleman. mr. king: i thank the gentleman from california. and i would be happy to yield the balance of my time to my other friend in life, dr. paul broun. mr. broun: i appreciate your leadership on this issue and many others. the american people are saying where are the jobs and these illegal aliens in this country must go home. we must secure border and must make english the official language and enforce the laws on

the back but can't put it on the backs of the employers of the united states but on the back of the federal government. i congratulate you on a great job, not on this issue and we will continue to fight, and do the things that the american people are crying out for to create jobs in america. and i congratulate you and i yield back. mr. king: i thank gentlemen for coming in to weigh in on this. we have to re-establish the rule of law and shut off the bleeding at the border and the jobs magnet. this bill, the new idea act does shut down the job magnet. it stands for the new illegal deduction elimination act. it's just recycled old ideas is

what they say. but it defines what goes on. the illegal deduction elimination act. right now, we haven't eliminated illegal deductions. the i.r.s. is not calling the shots on this. so people can hire illegals and it is against the law to deduct wages to illegals but they aren't enforcing it. and another piece, it requires the i.r.s. and the social security administration and the department of homeland security to set up a cooperative arrangement so they have to sit down at the table and decide, well, here are these no-match social security numbers and we are here in the department of homeland security and we can check them out and the i.r.s. can take those numbers as well and bring the noke cuss on so we are -- focus on so we can get at the goal, the goal is to enforce the law. thela shouldn't be to enforce

the law by the dream act. and we can't be the great nation if we don't take our path up that way by supporting and strengthening the rule of law, one of the essential pillars of american exceptionalism. that is the argument. amnesty or the rule of law. and the dream act not coming at us except in a lame duck session. if it does, that is an offense to the american people. to bring a bill like that with impunity when you know longer represent them because of the election that will take place in november. madam speaker, i thank my colleagues for coming to the floor. i appreciate your attention on this matter. i appreciate the american people's attention and i believe they will stand with the rule of law and with against amnesty and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from west virginia seek recognition.

>> section permission to address the house for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. mollohan: i call attention to an issue which threatens the economic viability of many industries and the existence of thousands of jobs in and around the coal fields of our nation. that issue, madam speaker, is the environmental protection agency's proposal to regulate coal ash as a hazardous material. over the past two years, madam speaker, the e.p.a. has peppered the federal government with the federal docket with a myriad of proposed rules and undertaken aggressive, zealous enforcement action targeted at industries in ap lashian -- ap latch chan states.

that fuels this nation's energy needs. in its latest round of regulatory bravado, they imposed additional regulation on coal combustion products, fly ash. under subtitle c of the resource recovery and con servings act. i'm speaking today in opposition to the e.p.a.'s extreme and burdensome rule making options to regulate fly ash under subtitle c. this rule would unnecessarily jeopardize construction and manufacturing jobs in addition to increasing costs of highway and other infrastructure projects which are so vitally needed in my district and districts throughout the country. why? because fly ash is an essential and reasonably priced ingredient

used in these industries and this rule would dramatically increase that cost. why is e.p.a. pursuing the subtitle c option when the agency determined under both democratic and republican administrations, madam speaker, through two reports to congress and two final regulatory determinations that coal ash does not warrant regulation as a hazardous waste? during e.p.a.'s four prior reviews of this issue, it concluded that states can manage coal ash under federal nonhazardous waste rules. e.p.a.'s c title option is inconsistent with its own past decisions. the 2009 failure to the tennessee valley kingston facility which started this

review and called important attention to this particular issue and reinforced the need for operational changes to avoid future actions. the federal government must work to ensure safety and environmental protection where coal empowerments are concerned. e.p.a.'s subtitle d option regulating fly ash as a nonhazardous waste provides these important protections while providing the important economic opportunities of coal fly ash. regulating fly ash as a hazardous material is overkill putting precious jobs at stake and cost $1.5 billion to implement according to e.p.a.'s own estimate. these costs will be absorbed by american families who are facing constraints of tough economic times.

coal combustion by-products are recycled for beneficial uses including cement, road materials and wall board. these beneficial uses of coal ash creates jobs. the subtitle c option would unnecessarily stigma advertise coal ash and restrict use in these important products. it's counterproductive to add more waste to our land fills when we could put it in roads and bridges, creating more jobs and building projects at reasonable prices. in closing, e.p.a.'s subtitle c option for coal ash regulation will have an adverse impact on job creation and economic recovery. this rule option would be deeply damaging in west virginia and throughout the nation and therefore, i strongly encourage

e.p.a. to pursue the subtitle d option, the nonhazardous option in its rule making process. i appreciate the opportunity to speak this evening about the importance of protecting west virginia's jobs, nation's jobs and recently cost infrastructure and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from new jersey, mr. payne, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. payne: thank you very much, madam speaker and i rise today with majority leader steny hoyer to rice the alarm on the current situation in sudan and underscore our support for timely, free and fair referendum on the independence of sudan. let me begin by thanking the

majority leader for calling this critical important special order and for his continued leadership on this issue, having led codels to sudan and having meetings with administration officials, having bringing in officials from sudan and south sudan for his continuing push for peace. i commend the majority leader, steny hoyer. . i was sworn into office in 1989, the same year that al bashir came to pow for the a coup in sudan -- came to pow for the a coup in sudan. i've followed situation since then. i'm concerned about what's happening now, the continued, emboldened intrans against of

the regime threatens the peace. on january 9, 2005, members of the united states government, including myself, witnessed the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement in nairobi, kenya. it ended the ghastly, 21-year civil war between the north and south of sudan a war that claimed the lives of two million southerners and displaced more than four million, a war in which the bashir regime used aerial bombings against innocent, defenseless women, children, elderly, disabled, and nearly destroyed an entire region, south sudan. what was so great about the people of south sudan, they could not destroy she spirit of the people of the south.

the comprehensive peace agreement championed by the late dr. john garang, who led the struggle in the south, outlined a path to secure lasting peace, a six-year interim period, during which khartoum would have the opportunity to show the people of south sudan it was capable of change and cape comfortable -- capable of including the south in a comprehensive plan to run south sudan. however, at the end of the six-year period, which on january 9, 2011, about six short months from now, the comprehensive peace agreement promised as an opportunity for the people of the south to determine whether the regime of khartoum changed enough that they wanted to remain part of

sudan or whether they wanted to sudan. they want -- dr. garang wanted to see a unified sudan but his untimely death in a plane crash ended his dream. the people in south sudan would decide if they would remain and keep their special administrative status in the north or become part of the south that has to be determined. should have been determined even before january 9, 2011. the c.p.a. laid out a clear benchmark to be met for those referendums to take place and also included detailed instructions for power sharing and oil revenue. still to date, these details have not been worked out. now, today, khartoum threatens to pull out of the agreement as bashir's regime has refused to

cooperate on key measures that must be put into place. khartoum has repeatedly played games, stalled, held up, obscure sod many critical steps in fulfilling the c.p.a. so much so that today it is unclear whether the referendum in january can actually be held freely and fairly. must i remind the house that this is the regime that carried out the first genocide to be declared by congress when it was in progress? nearly half a million darfurians have lost their lives as a result and more than two million darfurians have been displaced. while darfur is no long thorne front pages of newspapers, the people still suffer and what chief prosecutor of the international criminal court lewis moreno ocampo called last

week at think brain trust at the congressional black caucus foundation's annual legislative process, he called it a silent genocide. khartoum has strangled aid, cut off i.d.p. cams and is watching the people of darfur slowly starve to death. this is the regime headed by a president who has been indicted by the international criminal court for war crimes and genocide. and again as a c.p.a. is supposed to come into full completion in less than four months, there is the threat of massive violence once again against the people of the south. we have seen several reports of armed shipments into the south to arm the mezerari people and the militias that were such a destabilizing force in the north-south war. this is very serious.

as the administration rolls out a new policy that includes as incentive packages to sway khartoum to do the right thing, let us remember also that this is the same are regime that welcomes with open arms and harbored osama bin laden from 1991 to 1995, it was from khartoum that he planned an assassination attempt against egyptian president hoss nee mubarak. is this a regime deserving of a second chance to again and again and again, i dare say no. so what we have learned, what have we learned? in the words of the late dr. john bara -- garang, bashir and his regime is too deformed to be reform the u.s. must provide leadership in the international community. i call on president obama, secretary clinton and special

envoy gregs -- gration to provide leadership. i urge the president to meet with the president of sudan and of south sudan and to make it clear that the united states will provide support, that the south needs to ensure that the c.p.a. does not crumble and war does not break out again in the south. the message to khartoum must be that a dismissal of the c.p.a. in any form will not be tolerated. we demand free and fair referendum for the people of south sudan. we demand justice and accountability. we demand a real end to genocide in darfur. thank you and let me at this time recognize mr. brad miller

a member of the subcommittee on africa and global health who has done a tremendous amount in his time on the committee and it is my pleasure to yield him as much time as the gentleman from north carolina may consume. mr. miller: thank you, mr. payne. i also rise to call attention to critical issues that sudan now faces. more than three years ago, i was in a congressional delegation to sudan led by majority leader steny hoyer, who will speak shortly. other members of that delegation are here to speak tonight as well. this past january marks the fifth anniversary of the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement or c.p.a. that ended more than 20 years of civil war between the north and south in sudan that conflict was marked by northern aggression against the south, resulted in the deaths of more than two million people and

more than four million people in southern sudan fled their homes, becoming internally displaced persons or i.d.p.'s in the jargon of relief efforts in conflicts around the world. the c.p.a. dominated the party to govern jointly for six years, followed by referendum on self-determination for southern sudan. that referendum must happen as scheduled in four months and the referendum must be free, fair, credible, and a true reflection of the will of the people. if not, the c.p.a. will mark only a six-year pause in sudan's civil war, not an end to the war. secretary of state clinton was right when she said a year ago that the comprehensive peace agreement between the north and south will be a flash point for renewed conflict, if not fully implemented through viable national elections, a referendum on self-determination for the

south, resolution of the border disputes and the willingness of the -- respective parties to live up to their agreements. unfortunately, sudan's leches in 2010 did not meet anyone's standards of legitimate leches. there were widespread violence, voter intimidation and the continuing conflict in darfur that suppressed voter participation. predictably, the national congress party has consistently delayed and reneged on a c.t.a. commitment. madam speaker this is a critical moment for sudan. the c.p.a. mandated referendum is just four months away. the c.p.a. has not yet been fully implemented. voter registration for the referendum has not taken place and key procedures have not been established. in addition, the violence in darfur persists. the bashir regime continues to disrupt united nations

peacekeeping humanitarian operations and human rights organizations in darfur, leaving more than two million people still displaced and vulnerable. the bashir regime must know that the whole world is watching. we cannot divert our attention from sudan. we must remain committed and insist on the full cooperation of the c.p.a. to obtain sustainable peace in sudan. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: let me thank the gentleman for his state -- mr. >> i thank the gentleman. mr. payne: we will hear from our leader, the majority leader of -- from maryland, steny hoyer. mr. hoyer: i thank my friend for yielding. i thank him for leading this special order. i was pleased to, with him, undertake this special order

because of the timeliness of the crisis that confronts sudan and the implementation of the agreement. i want to thank all the members for participating in this special order as well. it's important that we in the congress stay focused and send a message, as i will here, that we are focused. i applaud the gentleman for his statement tonight, i applaud him further for his continuing leadership. nobody in the congress in either the house or senate has been more focused over a longer period of time, has traveled more extensively throughout the world and to some of the most troubled spots in the world and to sudan and has -- than has the gentleman from new jersey, mr. payne and i thank him for his leadership. in fewer than four months, southern sudan will hold a referendum on independence, which was guaranteed by the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement which has been referenced.

the c.p.a. ended africa's bloodiest civil war, a war which took almost two million lives and displaced four million. yet the risk of descending into war again seems too real. now, as on my congressional delegation to sudan three years ago, our focus remains the same. promoting peace, stability, and reconstruction across the whole of sudan. this is not only our moral obligation, but an important national security goal as well. we must work to en-- to ensure that sudan does not become a safe haven for terrorists. tonight, we're here to send a message to all those who live in and care about sudan. we support full implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement. we support a timely, peaceful,

free, and fair referendum. on independence. and we support an end to the violence in darfur. these are immense challenges to be sure. but sudan's central government has shown that it pays close attention to the international community's intentions and actions, which is why we must present a unified, comprehensive position in our response to both the ongoing violence in darfur and the north-south conflict. i want to be absolutely clear. darfur remains and will remain a point of focus for this congress. we recognize that peace keepers are struggling and in many cases failing, to fulfill their civilian protection mandate and that humanitarian groups are swimming in red tape and facing daunting security challenges. president obama and the international community must

continue to push khartoum on the issue of humanitarian access and independent human rights monitoring in the region and in the wake of what appears to be a near collapse of the latest efforts in doha, we must continue to strive far viable peace process. congress is watching, congress will hold you accountable. tonight, however, i want to focus my remarks on the need for full c.p.a. implementation and specifically on ensuring that the referendum on southern independence takes place on time and as i said in a free, fair, and peaceful manner. . and that results are respected by khartoum and the international community. with the referendum approaching on january 9, 2011, our own secretary of state said we can hear the loud sound of a ticking

time bomb. the possibility of new bloodshed. what can we do to prevent it? the u.s. has stepped up its efforts in southern sudan and providing $12 million for elections and security allowing the government of southern sudan to establish 11 joint operations in the 10 states in collaboration with other partners. i want to applaud president obama for attending secretary general's high-level meeting on sudan this past friday. the united nations to discuss what more the international community can do to ensure a fair and safe vote. my hope is that a powerful package of multilateral pressures and incentives will come out of this meeting and those that follow. i said last friday, i meant this coming friday. i support the administration's efforts to prepare for january.

with former south african president, who is leading the african union's efforts in sudan as well as with international financial institutions and international development agencies. but more can and must be done. we must hurry to establish a formal mechanism to help get the north and south to agreement on all of the outstanding issues. such a mechanism must include buy-in from civil society in an organized way. the c.p.a. is a positive model. the international community including our own administration must continue to remind those countries with a stake in the outcome, including russia, egypt and especially china, that it is in their own best interest to advance peace and stability in sudan. this is an international responsibility. we must support u.n. peacekeepers and urge them to do

more to protect civilians. we cannot simply throw our hands up and complain about a relatively ineffective peacekeeping system. we must fix it. finally, efforts in south sudan must be focused on the day of the referendum, but also, of course, on the day after. the international community must step up efforts to prevent southern sudan to prevent what the economists have called a pre-failed state. we know what it has posed to our own national security and prevent the emergens of a new one, and establishing an economy deserves and should have our support. s regardless of the steps we and the international community take, the decision to turn this vote into a foundation for peace, instead of one for further war ultimately rests in

the hands of the people of sudan. so my message to khartoum is this. step up. step up, khartoum. at the risk of sounding cynical, surprise us. this referendum is part of a peace agreement that you signed in 2005. come to the table. work to advance a peaceful outcome and don't leave your country back into war. the administration is clearly communicated to you that there are painful pressures and real incentives on the table. it is your choice, of course, and rest assured that the united states congress is watching your choice and will hold you accountable. to the government of south sudan, the u.s. congress is committed to the referendum and firmly believes it's in the best mechanism for you to express your right of

self-determination. alternative approaches will renew the term level that the c.p.a. was designed and will severely weaken the future of your people. we need you to step up as well. we need you to come to the table as a ready and willing partner and we need you to devote resources, time and energy to finalizing an operational plan and budget, agreeing on voter registration criteria and procedures and hiring and training recommendation sfration workers. there's hard work in front of you, but the reward in the form of your people's's right to choose is clearly precious. to the obama administration and the international community, thank you for your efforts to strengthen peace in sudan, but keep them going. we will have to work to ensure that the referendum is a success, but the consequences of failure should be more than

ample motivation for us all. friday's meeting must be a productive and serious one and more conversations must follow. they must be focused on how the international community will work together to assist in the technical and operational stages of the vote. to monitor and observe the process from start to finish, to guarantee implementation of the results and to mediate in cases of disagreement. you have the congress's full support in this effort. to the humanitarian community, especially the american-based n.g.o.'s working on the ground in sudan, you represent the best of america's selflessness anden rossity. you do god's work. thank you for that. this congress will improve humanitarian access so you can continue to do your jobs and advance the goals for which you have put your safety and yes,

even your lives on the line. improving the daily lives of people in the world's most war-torn regions is a moral responsibility. we stand with you, you deserve more than the bloodshed and dislocation that year after year have brought you. you deserve what we all deserve, a chance to live our lives and raise our children in peace and america will do everything in its power to ensure that janice the beginning of that chance -- january is the beginning of that chance. i thank the gentleman from new jersey. one of the senior members of this congress, leader on the african in the event. i thank him for yielding me this time and i yield back. mr. payne: let me once again

thank the majority leader for his passion and leadership on this issue and your statement here so thorough. irreally appreciate your leadership. at this time, i would like to recognize the co-chair of the sudan caucus, a gentleman who has traveled to sudan. he has been a fighter on this issue. he is -- he has been to meeting with the chinese, with other persons who had to be convinced that they should change their ways, my pleasure to introduce the gentleman from massachusetts, representative capuano. mr. capuano: i thank the gentleman. i would like to thank the majority leader for organizing this special order in such an important week. the reason we are doing this

this week, the president is scheduled to be at the united nations this week to meet on the sudan issue. things are coming to a head. and i'm not going to repeat the facts. we have an election that is scheduled to come up in january that is very, very critical to this region. let me be clear. to me, this may not be the most important issue to most of my constituents. i know that. i realize that. jobs are more important. the economy is more important. but america has been and always should be should be more than just about business. it has to be about morality and ethics as well. in this case, the morality -- immorality of a genocide, keeping people enslaved is something that i think only america is qualified to stand up and scream about.

the history in this region has been terrible. there have been civil wars, genocide, been every form of human degradation mostly perpetrated by the government in khartoum. at the same time, i'm one of those people that believe anyone can change their ways in any given day. that's not to forget the past, but the only way to find a way forward. the government in khartoum is at that crossroads right now. they have a choice to actually move forward and allow the people of south sudan to make their own decisions legitimately in january, whether they wish to go their own way or remain associated with sudan and then to enforce whatever the people of sudan decide and to do it in a peaceful way. this is important to the american people on a moral side and a realistic side. this particular area -- and i

will be honest, i could not have found dar for on a -- darfur on a map. i know that most of my constituents, most americans aren't sitting there knowing about this, but they will know it if it goes the wrong way and will know it because the entire region will go up in flames. there will be millions of people put at risk. everybody knows where somalia is because it is a lawless is. they know where ethiopia. this is right next door. it sits in a critical region. if civil war starts again in a serious way, genocide raises its ugly head again. the entire region will go up and most countries in that region will be directly affected and it

will directly affect america and the rest of the world. something like that cannot go on without doing something. and that's why i'm here today. to remind the american people, who i think across the board agree that genocide is something that needs to be creamed about and stopped wherever possible and people have the right to self-determination but to put the issue in front. i want to thank the administration, the obama administration has put this issue at the top of its agenda and i respect them and thank them for them. there are carrots and sticks on the table. khartoum, if they choose to take those carrots. if they don't, none of us really want to implement those sticks, but none of us are allowed to sit back and let genocide go forward without doing what we can. that's why i came today to say thank you to the sfration, to

encourage the khartoum regime to make the right choices. it's not too late. and thank the administration for all it's doing, to encourage them to do more. i join my colleagues in asking the administration to meet with the leader of suth sudan, meet with him and talk to him, hear it directly from him. and i hope we won't have to be back in january talking about this issue other than to congratulate the people of south sudan for conducting a thoughtful plebocite. c1 thoughtful plebocite. mr. payne: i thank the gentleman for his leadership. i would like to yield as much time as she may consume, gentlelady california, member from flick and global health --

africa and global health, congresswoman woolsey. ms. woolsey: i would like to thank chairman payne and majority leader hoyer for reserving this valuable time tonight to bring attention to sudan. while it may have slipped from the front page of the newspapers and headlines of the nightly news, the crisis in sudan is still in a very critical stage. in darfur, rape is being used as a means of terror and warfare. hundreds of thousands of people are living in refugee camps. militias with strong ties to khartoum brutalize the people of darfur. so we have a long way to go before the people of darfur can feel safe and return to a normal life. the comprehensive peace agreement was to lay out a peace agreement between north and

south but as we get closer to the date, fairness seems to become farther out of reach than it was earlier on. the south is forced to hope that president bashir, a man indicted by the international criminal court for war crimes, hope that he will support a clean and honest election free from corruption. many remain skeptical that when the time comes, president bashir will allow the south to vote. as chairman payne notes, because he has visited with and been honored by the people in my district who are working in regards to darfur and have been on top of this issue from the beginning, they know that the people of darfur are suffering. they have long supported the rights of the people of sudan

from a project of trents of hope to letter writing -- i think the project is called dear darfur and then there was dear darfur love marin county and dear darfur, love san francisco. marin and san francisco have stood for justice and peace in darfur and have been outraged at what they've seen. they teach about the issue in schools and the schools are raising money for the people of darfur and are helping paint the tents for tents of hope. i join in calling on the obama administration to put more pressure on the government of sudan and we must demand that

khartoum and president bashir allow a fair referendum and permit international assistance and monetary. further, the plight of the darfurians must not be pushed aside in deference to the north-south situation. the genocide continues and sudan will never be free of oo presentation and violence until president bashir and his reign of terror is brought to an end and he is held accountable. thank you, mr. payne. mr. payne: i thank the gentlelady the co-chair of the progressive caucus. let me commend your congressional district in marin county that had a very interesting forum where we discussed with darfurian citizens, former citizens of darfur in the south, and your district doctor is so progressive, it was my pleasure to be there in the great state of california.

at this time, i'd like to ask the gentleman from virginia who has served in africa, he has done outstanding work prior to coming to congress, very knowledgeable and a delightful advocate for people who are striving for justice, representative perriello, i yield to you as much time as you may consume. mr. perriello: thank you, mr. payne. history will look kindly on your willingness to speak up and fight for those who had no voice in this body. mr. hoyer, our leader, your willingness to bring up this issue and your adherence to mathew 5, to help the least of those among us, will be noticed. when we say never again do, we mean it. when we say genocide, never again.

when we say women and children dying, thousands a day, from hunger and disease, never again? it's easy to put on a bumper sticker, it's easy to say at a public event but making its a reality is never simple. we face today without the luxury of ignorance, the knowledge that people suffer around the world unspeakable atrocities. and for too long, that has included the people of sudan throughout sudan. today we focus primarily on the important issue of democracy and peace for those who suffered for two decades in southern sudan. but we also know that the comprehensive peace agreement cannot be used to hold hostage the women, children, and vulnerable of darfur and blue nile region and other areas. we sit here today with an opportunity to shed light, but more importantly to produce results for those who have suffered for too long. it is not an offer of something we speak from this floor or

something we use when we engage directly in our diplomacy in conversations with sudan. this is larger than that. it must rank when we talk to egypt, russia, china and others who do so many deal wgs this regime a regime i believe is ultimately irreparable. we can now say we will support the democratic process for southern sudan and ensure a fair referendum. we know from the history of this country that supporting democracy is not something we do because it's easy. we do it because it's right. it's not something was it happens overnight. it's something we support because we know through the arc of history bending toward justice, we move toward a more democratic and free world and that that should apply as much to the people of sudan and the continent of africa as it does here for those blessed enough to be born in the united states. and we also know and i know from my experience working in

areas such as sierra leone that democracy and fair elections do not occur the day of the vote. they are something that must be built toward by ensuring a fair process of registration. of accountability. of avoiding the kind of intimidation and corruption that builds up in these situations. i think it's important to note that we are keeping an eye on this early but we must be vigilant. the people of darfur, and the people of southern sudan have a chance to speak. one of the greatest gifts of the greatest generation was the idea of global security and a world of expanding freedom and democracy. in the same way they've handed that torch to us as americans, they asked us to make sure we were looking on that in terms of the community of nations. and we've seen bipartisan support. i want to recognize the leadership of congressman frank

wolf and senator brownback and others who have been willing to speak up, not just on peace vaguely but the reality that we must be willing to hold this regime accountable even when that's difficult and costs us diplomatic points. with indicted war criminals like harun who are put into government positions after having overseen the worst atrocities of the last 25 year we must ask whether we mean never again. whether we're serious about justice and accountability. i've spent time with the rebel groups in darfur. i spent time with those who are suffering under decisions, criminal decisions, horrific decisions made by these individuals. yes, we must start with this comprehensive peace agreement. we must not allow to it back slide. but we must also see this as the beginning of a process of ensuring justice and accountability more broadly. one of the great sudanese figures of the modern era

recently passed away. in fact, he spent his final days in a hospital in my district. having given away literally everything he had, not just his financial resources but every ounce of energy he had in his soul and body to endure this. he is just the tallest and most symbolic and known of those who have given their lives in the fight for democracy and freedom for those in southern sudan. we must not allow him and others to have died in vain. those who are in a position to ensure otherwise, including those in this body on both sides of the aisle, must stand up and ensure those who have the courage to stand up and demand what's right that we have their back. that we had their bang when it came to diplomacy and economic negotiation, when it came time to a commitment to peacekeeping and multilateral operations, to those who have given tireless hours and those who

unfortunately are not here to see this through to completion. we are at a moment where after years of struggle, bringing us to the edge of the promised land, there's a chance for us to see this through. let us ensure a fair and just election process for southern sudan. let us use that as a spring board to ensure democracy and basic justice and decency for the west, the east, the north and the center of sudan as well. i thank mr. hoyer, i thank mr. payne and i thank all of those who have spoken up. i hope this will not be another case where we sit by and let never again echo silently and powerlessly through the ages but instead we look back proudly on what we stood up to do as americans and human beings. with that, i yield back. mr. payne: let me surgeonly once again commend the gentleman from virginia, the work he's done speaks for him. and it's a pleasure to have him

in our house of representatives. we will certainly look forward to your continued leadership in the next congress. at this time i'd like to introduce the gentleman from georgia who has shown interest in many issues that relate to human right the gentleman from the great state, i mentioned, from georgia, representative barrow. mr. barrow: i thank the gentleman and thank him for his leadership in this area. i want to join him in thanking the minority leader for bringing this matter to the attention of the house this evening. i rise in support of the people of sudan and to pledge my continued commitment to achieving lasting peace and security for the sudanese people. three years ago, i traveled to the darfur region as part of an official bipartisan congressional delegation. during that time, i was table meet with a host of individuals, ranging from the president of southern sudan, united nations peace keepers,

ministers from the government of southern sudan, the peeker of parliament and rebel leader and darfur peace agreement signatory mr. minoawi. each holds an essential stake in peace. sudan's democratic and geographic integrity as well as the lives of its people depend on the contingent -- continued leadership of these and other people. this year, as we mark the fifth an verse arery of the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement that put an end to sudan's 21 queerled civil war, i'm encouraged by the gains made, but there's still much more work to be done. the united states cannot and will not turn a blind eye to genocide in darfur or to corruption and poor leadership in any part of sudan. too much blood has been shed and too many lives have been lost. the united states must continue to work with our international allies to provide aid and promote peace because that's

the right thing to do. we should do everything we can to see to it that the citizens and leaders of sudan come together, put an end to tribal violence and commit themselves to the welfare of sudan. again, with my thanks to mr. payne and to the majority leader, i yield back the balance of my time to the gentleman from new jersey. mr. payne: let me thank the gentleman for the continued good work that you do. we certainly conclude, you've heard the words from our leader , representative hoyer, you've heard members of the congress express themselves. i, too, would like to say this has been a bipartisan effort. congressman wolf, senator brownback, at the last hearing i had, i invited him to come to the house hearing and he did an outstanding job. but many of us say that this issue must be resolved.

and it's the historic problem of the region of egypt and sudan back at the end of the ottoman empire, back in 1914, then the british came in and jointly kind of ruled egypt and sudan and finally, during the suez canal crisis in the early 1950's, the egyptian revolution started to move forward and it was felt that egypt and sudan had to separate if egypt was going to get its independence. interestingly enough, sudan was the first black nation to get independence from any of their colonial powers back january 1 of 1956. however, prior to that independence, the war broke out between the north and south. one of the problems that we

have seen today is because the british had two administrations. it had an administration for the north, and it had an administration for the south. and way back during its administration, it created the difference between the north and the south. and those problems just continue to move forward and some of those issues remain today. the fact that the many groups of sudan many diverse -- there are about 38 million people in sudan. interesting that 49% are black and 38% are arab and 11% are nubians and the problem in

darfur would sur prides many people because the darfurians were people who worked with the national congress party, the darfurians were persons who were in the armed services of the government of sudan. and when the government of sudan turned on the darfurian people, bombing them, killing them, then allowing the janjawee to come and rape and burn and pillage, kill animal, throw them into wells, shocked many people because darfurians were relatively loyal to the government of sudan and so this is terrible government, government that has tried to have an arabization program, trying to -- in the war between the north and south was because dr. john garang and the people of the south who are christians and animists did not want to

live under sharia law which was being imposed by al bashir. so we have to continue to push to make sure that the c.p.a., on january 9, is uphold, in 2011, and we have to remember those, rebecca garang, the widow of dr. garang, who still today is raising her children, those who have fought with the spla, splm for many years will have their opportunity and whatever the people of sudan in the south decide, that is what we should allow to be the word. .e word. and should be up to the people of the south, whatever they decide, whether they decide to remain a part of sudan or whether they decide to separate, we should ensure that whatever

their decision is that we will guarantee that the will of the people be done. and so as the time has expired, i would like to once again thank our majority leader for his continued interest and members who have come to participate. and let me indicate that i will ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this special order of sudan. with that, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair recognizes the

gentleman from new jersey for a motion. mr. payne: i move to adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is agreed

would talk to a reporter who has written about regulation of the egg industry and one farm blame for the recent outbreak. >> key is what of the country's biggest egg producers. heat started out in the state of maine and has steadily expanded. he was in maryland for a long time and now we has a big operation in iowa, which is where this recall is centered.

he also has had connections to large farms in ohio. >> you write about these farms in different states. why is it that the federal government has not been able to have tougher oversight of these farms in various states? >> this is a real patchwork. the fed's really did not involved at all or could not figure out how to get involved. it was the state's that took the lead. the new york health department was crucial in the 1980's. one of the things that fascinated me in the reporting is that in the 1980's, this was a huge problem. people were getting sick all over the place. new york state stepped in. that really put the industry on notice. that began this process of figuring out ways to handle this bacteria that was getting and

eggs. it took the fed's 20 years at least to figure out a set of standards and implement them. that is what happened this summer, too late to stop this outbreak from happening. >> the charts that accompanies your article is testimony to the years of outbreaks related states, etc. the house oversight committee has issued a statement. is this the first time that the committee will have heard from these folks? >> this is the first time he has spoken publicly since this began. he will be testifying and his son, peter, who runs the work of the iowa farms is going to be testifying as well. we have not heard from him directly. he has said that in doing this story, he has told state

regulators before, i am going to clean it up. as we have seen it, it has not been successful. he went to iowa after there was a lot of heat on him on the east coast to clean up its operations there. he moved out to iowa in the 1990's. there is really no modern train for salmonella in the egg industry. >> that is something that scientist wish they could answer. it appears all over the world and the late 1970's and 1980's. england had a terrible epidemic.

in europe had all sorts of problems. it is all over the world today. it began in new england, as we have seen from the data we ran in the paper today. it gradually, it spread to the rest of the north east. it jumped up to california and the western states, never really been much of a problem in south -- in the south. nobody knows why. scientists have had a tough time coming up with an explanation that they can agree on for why this happened. >> this is a high-profile hearing today. hearing from the head of the dekoster farms. what to supporters hope comes out of this? >> one of the things is that there is a food safety bill that has been languishing in congress for about a year now. a lot of the advocates hope this particular outbreak and recall will effort -- spur the senate to pass their version of the

bill. the house has already passed theirs. there is some hope that it will pass and put some more muscle in the fda's ability to deal with this sort of thing. >> his article today is the front page and online. thank you for joining us. >> today's house hearing on this years egg recall. we will hear from two women who became ill from eating salmonella tainted eggs and from the fda regulators. this is three hours and 20 minutes. >> the chairman will be

recognized for a 5 minute opening statement. other members of the recognized for 3 minute opening statements. i began. before we begin, i am going to ask unanimous consent that art contents that the documents in their provided that the committee staff -- i ask the unanimous consent of the contents of our document finder, be entered into the record provided that the committee staff in the information that is business, proprietary, relates to privacy concerns. the documents will be entered into the record. today's hearing will mark the 13th hearing of the oversight subcommittee since january of 2007 regarding food safety issues. we have examined salmonella

outbreaks associated with products manufactured by the association of america, which resulted in criminal investigation. we have investigated and nikolai outbreak traced to spend it. -- e coli related to spinach. we are dealing with two companies and sold nationwide. 1608 people were infected with salmonella from the eggs between may 1 and september 14. we learned about the two egg operations in iowa that produced the tainted eggs paid a very disturbing picture of a production in america. when fda inspectors into the plant in august, they found facilities riddled with unsanitary and unsafe conditions. according to the inspectors, employees working within -- did

not change protective clothing when moving from house to house. live rodents were located. you can see the tanks just to the left of the circle there. we have a liquid ammonia or closing out of buildings. their interest in another photograph where that shows it coming out of the doorway. we have dead and decaying chickens found in the site. live and dead flies. most importantly, positive test results for salmonella were found in both farms. even more alarming, during the course of this investigation, the committee has a record 2 showed the ad pot -- tested positive for salmonella contamination prior to the widespread outbreak of the illness. environmental samples reports taken in and around the chicken cages between 2008 and 2010

indicate that they received a 426 positive test results for salmonella. countygg received26 positive results for salmonella including 73 that were potentially positive for salmonella en tir eye tus, the same strain that sickened 1,600 people. perhaps these findings should not be a surprise given the record of the decoster farm operation that owns the wright county egg facilities. in fact, decoster farm had so many environmental and safety violations that the state of iowa declaredhem habitual violators and assessed a total of $219,000 in civil fines. decoster farm is the only entity to recei the habitual violater status from the state of iowa. the work of this subcommittee coupled with the work of the health subcommittee and the foe committee on food safety culminated in the production of hr 2749, the food safety enhancement act. this legislation passed the

committee by unanimous consent and the u.s. house of representatives on july 30th, 2009. the food safety legislation has been stalled in the senate for more than a year. the provisions contained in our food safety legislation would address several concerns raised by this outbreak. for example, the bill would require new traceback regulations that enable the secretary to identify the history of the food as quickly as possible, but no later than two business days. the food safety legislation would give the fda the needed author authority to issue mandatory recalls and company records. while in this case the two iowa farmsdid issue voluntary recalls, the fda should not have to rely on the company's good will when the public health is at risk. the legislation will also give the fda a guaranteed consistent source of funding through the registration fees. these fees will allow the fda to conduct more inspections, to be proactive, to prevent outbreaks

from occurring. we will hear testimony from different witnesses on the recall, victims of the outbreak, the manufacturers of the recalled eggs and a representative from the fda. on our first panel we have two viims affected by the salmonella center rye tis, sarp rah lewis and carl la bot toe. sarah is a 30-year-old mother of two who contracted salmonella eating a start at her sister's graduation banquet shechlt ha has been admitted to the hospital twice. she works at her parents' butcher shop which they owned since the 1970s. she's very familiar with local and state regulations as they are subject to constant inspections. carroll is a 77-year-old mother of four and grandmother of four. when carol and her husband took her grandson out to dinner in colorado s contracted salmonella. she's very familiar with egg

rms as she was raised in iowa on a chicken farm. she spent five days in the hospital suffering from tonguesic shop, severe diarrhea and dehydration. our second panel will consist of os stint decoster and his son, or len bethel, president oft hillendale farms of iowa and duane mass cow, production manager, hillendale farm of iowa. it's my sincere hope these gentlemen will be forthcoming in what they're doing to make sure their eggs are safe for the american people. the third panel will have dr. shaf ski from the food and drug administration. i look forward to hearing from our witnesss today about the progress that has been made since the outbreak occurred and how we can strengthen the food safety system. we began pushing for reform more than three years ago. our hearings demonstrated the weaknesses in our food safety system and will remain -- ghon

street the weaknesses in the food safety system that will remain until we enact a food safety bill into la make no mistake about it, without legislative action, it's not a matter of the but when more lives will be put at risk by anoth outbreak by today's hearing. this outbreak affected more than 1600 individuals, two of which are here to tell their story today. fortunately no one has died. in each of our 13 food safety hearings, we are reminded that each year approximately 76 million americans become sick for food born disease such as salmonella. 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 deaths will occur in the united states. it's time to give our regulators the tools they need to be proactive in the fight against food-borne illnesses and these disease. i next turn to the ranking member of the subcommittee, mr. vur jess of texas for an opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank you and our

witnesses who are here with us today for participating in this very important hearing. onceagain, as you've already articulated, we find ourselves in the middle of a food-borne illness outbreak, this time involving the safety of a food item that we frequently buy, eat and serve to our families. just this morning i viewed pictures taken by the food and drug admintration at both company's facilities during the fda inspections. these photos document extremely unsanitary and uightly conditions including piles of chicken maneuver that was pushed up againstn open doorway and leaking outside a laying house, dead flies by the thousands, rodent holes, structural damage to buildings and chicken carcasses. these companies must be able to account for and respond to these photos. i'm also anxious to respond to the food and drug administration if the public can take comfort in the fact that these observations are not normal. i wonder if the fda will be able to answer this question

considering that they have not inspected any other egg production facilities be hides these two in quite some time. to date the centers for disease control has reported over 1500 illnesses are likely to be associated with salmonella in eggs. i want to thank our first panel of witnesses, both victims of this outbreak for appearing today to share your stories. the outbreak of salmonella in eggs is unique in that the salmonella contamination is not from the shell but the interior of the egg. test results indicate the laying hens themselves were affected and the hens passed the contamination through the inside of the eggs. one very impornt fact about the vestigation, perhaps an indication that this hearing is held before we have all the facts is that the ultimate source of the salmonella contamination is not y certain. concerns about the feed given to the young chickens and the unsanitary conditions of the suspect farms have been raised. i hope that the testimony provided today will mov us closer to understanding the original source of the

contamination and how to prevent it from ever happening again. by early august, the traceback investigations completed by the cdc, fda and state partners indicated a common source of contamination from a sij farm owned by the decoster family. on august 13, wrooilt county egg issued a voluntary recall of approximately 380 million. on august 19, hillendale, owned by mr. orlando bethel issued a voluntary recall of eggs after being suspected as a potential sourcef contamination. responsible corporate actors are crucial in maintaining a safe and reliable food industry. companies must observe good manufacturing agricultural practices. the documents and subsequent photographs obtained by this committee raise serious questions about whether both of these companies were consistently maintaining such good practices. particul interest are the do dockmentes that show the test results done at decoster farms. the contamition is frequent.

72 of environmental sponges were tested for salmonella and only eight were negative. experts who have spoken to staff have indicated that environmental samples that turn positive for salmonella may be expected on a farm and do not necessarily indicate that the food end product is contaminated, but i want to know, if these finding warrant cause for alarm and become troublesome, if positive results become a pattern and are not rectified. i want to ask the decosters about these tests and what the company gleaned from this information. i'm interested in what the fda has to say about this as well. other documents obtained by the committee include numerous sanitation reports completed by the department of agriculture and marketing services. some of the hazard plans, unsatisfied factory conditions, unsatisfied factory sanitary conditions an array of conditions at wright county egg over a number of years. i would like mr. decoster to

comment and explain these records. alough the food and drug administration has said that eggs have historically been a high-risk food product. the fda did not inspect these facilities prior to the outbreak. during the investigations discussed, the investigators noted that they all failed. tests conducted in august at wrooilt county egg were positive for the same and other strains of salmonella. these were taken from maneuver pits, chicken feeds and other surfaces. i want an up date report explaining where the exact matches of salmonella to the outbreak strain that caused human illnesses were found and how the companies and food and drug administration interpret these results. it's important for the fda as well as the industry to work cooperatively internally with other federal agencies and with health and agricultural departments to reduce the number of and help prevent food borne

illness. a new egg rule became effective this july that addressed several concerns of this outbreak. it took the food and drug administration over ten years to act on this issue, illustrating a systemic bureaucratic weaknesses. the future fda should not be a reactive body. it should be proactive. mr. chairman, i support conducting this investigation and holding the hearing. i have a concern that we're not always done in the most bipartisan and useful manner. september 9th i sent a letter to you stating that i thought the ceo of the fda, the commissioner of the fda, dr. margaret hamburg should be here to offer the agency's official testimony. she and the obama administration have repeatedly stated that food safety and the resources of the fda is a top priority and must be taken seriously, quickly addressed. in the 110th congress the commissioner was here four times and testified on food safety.

the majority declined to invite a representative from the united states department of agriculture to testify even though the committee sent a document request to the agency, held a briefing and received thousands of pages of relevant information concerning their role in the regulation of these farms and this outbreak. staff has obtained and reviewed relevant and revealing usda documents, including audit reports, pre operative sanitation reports. in an observation from wright county egg, this hearing would be more productive if a usda official were here to answer questions and perhaps the number one estion, why didn't you say anything to the food and drug administration? the ultimate goals of this hearing are good and i support the food safety legislation this house has passed in 2009. i'm eager for the senate to move on this portant issue. mr. chairman, i thank you for your forbearance and i yield back the balance of my time. >> mr. waxman, chairman of the full committee for an opening

statement, please. >> thank you very much chairman stupak. before i address the concerns of this hearing, i wanto thk you for a record of four years in diligence in pursuing issues of food safety. your work stands out as a model of congressional oversight and investigation and you have illustrated very clearly the need for stronger food safety laws. you've had 13 hearings in the last four years. you ed et cadded the members of this committee and the american people about glaring deficiencies at all levels of our food safety network. today we're going to examine two of the nation's largest egg producers, wright county egg and hillendale farms of iowa. they've been asked to appear today because of evidence that they produced eggs in filthy conditions that caused food poisoning in thousands of consumers across the country. e decoster family which owns wright county egg andraised

eggs for hillendale farms in iowa has known about safety problems at these facilities for decades, yet they continue to persist. over 30 years ago eggs from a farm operated by the decoster family killed nine people and sickened 500 in new york. 20 years ago, maryland ordered the decosters to stop selling eggs in the state because of the contamination problem. as the committee revealed last week, environmental testing at coster facilities over the last three years tested positive dozens of times for potential contamination by a dangerous form of salmonella yet despite these warnings, the decoster facilities were operated with a shocking level of disregard for basic food safety controls. food safety inspectors from fda

finally went inside the facilities in august. as a photograph i'd like to have displayed shows, they saw decaying corporations of row debts and unsealed rodent holes along the walls of a when house. conditions were so bad in o facility that the wall of the barn was bursting open because of the excessive maneuver. decoster farms have had warning after warning, yet they continue to raise chicken in slovenly conditions and to make millions of dollars by selling contaminated eggs. the risks are real. our first two witnesses today are ms. sarah lewis and ms. carol la bot toe. ms. lewis ate contaminated eggs while celebrating her sister's college graduation. ms. la bot toe was sickened wh going to dinner with her

grandson. they werboth hospitalized and gravely ill. i commend both of them in speaking out today and being at the hearing. unfortunately their horrific experiences were shared by many others. the egg that is are the subject of today's hearing sickened over 1600 people in 11 states. this hearing will make abundantly clear that our food safety laws need thorough overha overhaul. the committee on the house passed a bartisan bill last year that would protect consumers from these abuses. the house bill would require farms to report to fda whenhey find their unsafe food has entered the food supply. it would give the fda the clear authority to access records on egg farms during investigations. it would empower the fda to mandate recalls when firms do not comply voluntarily.

these are the kinds of tools that will ensure the safety of the food we consume. yet, as we hold this hearing today, one senator, a lone senator, tom coburn is holding this vital safety legislation hostage in the senate. his actions are preventing the fda from strengthening its oversight and enforcement programs. in fact, they're preventing the senate of the united states from debating the issue, offering amendments and making decisions about the legislation. and i have a plea for senator coburn. for the sake of ms. lewis, ms. lobato and hundreds of thousands of americans poisoned by salmonella every year, please lift your hold and allow this vital safety legislation to move forward. we're going to have some tough questions today for jack decoster, the ceo of the wright county egg and or len bethel,

the ceo of hillendale farms, but i do want to thank them for appearing here voluntarily and for cooperating with our committee's investigation. i also want to thank fda deputy commissioner dr. joshua scharf stein for testifying been us today. our goal is to make american families safer. that's why this hearing is so important and why we must reform our food safety system so that we can eradicate or at least reduce food borne illnesses. imagine, the fda cannot get information from these farms, they don't have the ability to subpoena it. they have to be given to them voluntarily. they can't issue a warrant -- they have to try to issue a warrant to get information. there's no obligation by these farms to report to the fda even when they know there's food

safety problems. this is unthinkable. that's why the house unanimously -- this committee unanimously approved the bill and the house overwhelmingly adopted it. now we want the senate to act. let's don't go home from congress without passing food safetyegislation. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. waxman. mr. lie door of for opening statement please. three minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman, ranking member burgess. thank you for holding this hearing on the outbreak of sal nell land eggs as the incidence of contaminated food products are a serious concern for public health. i'm glad the two witnesses who were infected by the eggs are here today and able to be with us. is hearing is also a great concern to me because egg production is critical to my state, ohio, which is the second largest egg-producing state in

the nation. many of you have heard me say i represent the largest manufacturing drakt in the state of ohio but ao the largest agricultural district in the state of ohio. i'm also home to one of the top two egg-producing counties in the nation. when you look at the egg pros duesed in my district, it has an economic impact of $102.4 million. ohio is also one of the ten states with an egg quality assurance program with the aim to min niz salmonella in eggs. first of all, i think it is important to remember that the purpose of this hearing is to get the facts. while we have the fda form 483 withts general observations about the conditions at the wright county egg and t hillendale farms operations in iowa that are being investigated, we don't have the establishment in the report

which will provide more clear answers. furthermore, i'm disappointed that the fda commissioner is not here to testify nor is a presentative from the usda. we need to get these answers and hear what went wrong from these producers so the industry can learn from this recall. we do not want the public to lose confidence in our egg producers. several of the egg producers in my district are fourth generation farmers and have been committed to producing a safe product for years. if we have overburdening regulation that is are placed out there, many of these farmers may be forced out of business. unfortunately preventing a fifth generation from being able farm. the safety and security of our nation's food supply is of the utmost importance to me. mr. chairman, i want to thank you very much for the opportunity and i look forward to hearing the testimony from our witnesses on the panel. mr. chairman, i'd also like to submit in the record from the ohio poultry association a document on egg facts in ohio.

>> withoutobjection, that will be made part of your opening statement and we'll receive the document. >> i yield back. >> mr. braley from iowa for an opening statement, please. >> thank you, mr. chairman. some of my earliest memories are walking into my grandparents' when houses to collect eggs. growing up in iowa you couldn't avoid commercials promoting the incredible, edible egg. we ate them fried, poached, hard boiled, over hard, sunny side up, scrambled in only let's. that was just for breakfast. we truly believe that eggs were nature's nearly most perfect food. growing up in iowa, i don't remember my mom buying eggs in the supermarket. we bought them from the farms. we died them at easter and threw them on halloween and we ever, ever imagined they could cause

life threatening illness and kill us. that why the recent revelations of an incomprehensible half billion egg recall originating in my home state was so disturbing. so why are we here? first and foremost we need to examine how and why this happened, to ensure the sfety of american families and prevent this type of tragedy from happening in the future. second, we need to identify and eliminate weaknesses in our state and federal food safety enforcement system and take strong measures to hold wrong doers accountable and protect good representations of producers who consistently play by the rules and supply safe food of a high quality at a reasonable price. the economic impact of egg producers in iowa is indisputable. iowa is america's number one egg producer bay country while yet economic impact is no trump card when lives are at stake. like many americans i'm disturbed by the increasing

number of food-borne illnesses in the united states. these incidents all raise important questions about the safety and security of our nation's food supply. as an eye want, i'm offended some ithe egg stlee are suggest that consumers are somehow responsible forgetting sick because they didn't properly cook their eggs. now is the time for accountability, not blame shifting. as an iowan i was dpus gusted to read reports about live mouse, infestations of flies, mountains of maneuver and other unsanity conditions linked to the large salmonella outbreak of its kind in the united states. it's clear that changes need to be made to our food system to provide assurances to parents that the food they feed to their families is safe. the house passed food safety legislation last year. you've heard about it. it would ge the fda authority to order mandatory food recalls, impose fines for food safety

violations and reire more frequent food silt inspections. it would also give the fda access to company records in the case of an emergency. these are important first steps to make sure our food supply is safe. we need to be doing a much better job of protecting american families from unsafe food. every four years, mr. chairman, peop come to my state for the presidential caucuses and see our magnificent gold-domed capitol. yet few people take that t time to go inside the rotunda. my favorite saying in that rotunda is from the greek lawmaker solon who said the ideal state, that in which an injury done to the least of its citizens is an injury done to all. until we get serious about uniform federal food safety practices in this country, we are far from becoming that ideal state. and until consumers feel as safe and secure buying eggs in their neighborhood supermarket as i felt in my grandparents' when

house, egg producers in iowa and across the country have their work cut out for them. i yield back. >> thank you for your opening statement. you want on the record that you threw eggs at halloween? ms. degette, opening statement, please? >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. i want to add the chairman's thanks to you. the 13 hearings i think i've been sitting with you mr. chairman for every single one of those hearings, everything from spinach to peanut butter to jalapeno peppers to meat to nuts, pretty much the entire american dietas been under scrutiny the last few years. i have one question and the question i have is when is the senate going to pass the very fine food safety bill this house passed over a year ago? i don't think it's any excuse that one senatorcan hold up the bill, but if that is the excuse,

then i would add to chairman waxman's demand that senator coburn released his hold on this bill. but beyond that, i think the senate should stay in session until they pass this bill. the reason is, if we don't, we're going to be sitting here every six months just like we have been for the last four years. and the proem with that, it's not just about us passing the legislation. it's about people like the witnesses who are sitting here today. ms. lewis and mrs. lobato. i want to welcome all of you and say how glad i am you're putting a human face on this again. i particularly have to welcome the lobatos because they've been family friends of my family's for many, many years. we won't say how long because we'll have to reveal our ages. thank you for coming to talk to us about what's going on here. you know, we can fix this problem. this egg outbreak which is outrageous could have been

minimized -- i mean aside from the conditions at the when houses and everything else, if this bill had been law, several things in this legislation could have been mitigated this problem. the -- it took three months before this voluntary recall and there were thousands of americans that fell ill before we determined what the source of contamination was. there are three components to the legislation this this committee and the house passed that are now in the senate bill that would have prevented this. number one, under our legislation the fda would be able to get the records to show where the contamination came from. number two, traceability. this was a provision that i worked to get into the legislation which would allow contaminated products to be quickly traced from the field or in this case the when house to the fork and that would greatly decrease the amount of time it

would have taken for us to identify the source of the contamination. and the third thing is, the fda would have now mandatory recall authority. so if the producers themselves didn't recall the product, then the fda could have. all of these things together would have applied in this situation if this bill had become law. so frankly, mr. chairman, we can't wait until after the election. we can't wait until the next congress starts. we need to make this bill law now. i would urge every single person who is here or who is watching this to call their senators and urge them to enact this law before we leave. >> the gentle lady yields back. mr. doyle for an opening statement? >> thank you. i'll be brief. i want to thank you for hding this hearing and also what please your it's been to serve with you on this panel. we'll miss your presence next year. my thanks go out to the

witnesses for agreeing to testify, especially our first panel, ms. lewis and ms. lobato. i remeer growing up and learning from my mom how to properly cook eggs because you never knew if the heartbreak of salmonella would come out. it took years for me to find out that salmonella weren't the people in the eggs. even though consumers know they have to cook them the right way, people have a reasonable expectation that egg producers are doing all they can to identify and fix issues in production that could cause their hens to get salmonella and pass it onto the eggs. it looks like it didn't happen here. i look forward to learning why. why do companies with a record of prior violations not ensure their facilities were clean and free of rodents? why did positive tests for salmonella not cause the producers to go into overdrive and clean up their premises. why did those eggs go to market

to restaurants and consumer's homes where they could get sick. it's a blessing there were no reported deaths. i hope we can learn today to make sure there wasn't a next time. next time we may not be so lucky. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses. with that, mr. chairman, i'll yield back. >> ms. christian sen for an opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. here we go again, unfortunately at another hearing on food contamination. thank you for the quick response in holding the day's hearing and the recent outbreak in salmonella in eggs which highlights another crack in our food safety system. in late gust the food and drug administration officials reported positive findings of salmonella, in chicken feed sent to both write county egg and hillendale farms. more than 550 million eggs from the two eggs were recalled in

august after being linked to as many as 1300 cases of salmonella poisoning. i want to join my colleagues in thanking some of those harmed by this outbreak for being here to testify. fda indicated contaminated feed was a source of the outbreak but possibly not the oy source. subsequent on-site inspections revealed grossly unsanitary conditions. a common threat in the numerous hearings we've held on food safety or the lack thereof is the inadequate and fragmented regulation of food in this country. as in this case, there's often a long history of noncompliance with safety and sanitation measures resulting in problems. wright county farms, the company slofd in this outbreak has been associated with outbreaks since the early 80s. in the case of eggs, the ag department oversees chickens and grades chickens for their quality. the fda is responsible for safety of eggs on the shelves. this is just another example of

the bureaucratic gaps in regulating food safety that continue to put consumers at risk. as you've heard, last year the house passed hr2749, the food safety enhancement act in response to what we consider a crisis. among other regulatory changes this bill would give the fda the power of mandatory recall of diseased food as well as oversight and access to the safety plans that food seice facilities establish as well as tests conducted to measure safety and inspection records. until these new regulations are in place, we n't be able to strengthen the food safety. and i do realize fda did put new regulations in place a little too late to really stop this outbreak. but i hope today's hearing will further emphasize the need for the senate toass this bill. thank you, mr. chairman. i yield back. >> thank you. mr. marquee for opening statement, please? >> thank you, mr. chairman for

holding this hearing. thanks to chairman waxman for his leadership in bringing this issue out into the open and to our witnesses, we wish you all a full and speedy recovery from this debilitating and life threatening experience. we can all easily agree that americans should be able t have their eggs overasy without having to worry that the eggs will make them queasy. but more than a thousand people have been severely sickened by eggs laced with salmonella since the eggs first entered the food chain in may. more than half a billion eggs have been voluntarily recalled since august. as we have learned the conditions found in the facilities connected to these eggs were horrific, like something out of upton sinclair's "the youngal." it is my fear that this recall may not be the endf the store richlt there are many egg-producing facilities in

other states with strong corporate ties to the companies responsible for the iowa recall that have not yet been inspected by the fda. and with senator tom coburn's recent annouement of operation to the senate food safety bill the fda may well continue to be denied the strong enforcement tools it needs to crash down on unsafe practices that the house passed last year leaving the corporate fox in charge of the when house indinitely. i know senator coburn is a republican. i know the republicans in the senate are trying to stop any legislation from passing. this is a public health imperative. there must be some exception for republicans in the senate when it goes to the health of millions of amicans. they must release this bill so we can protect millions of families. this past july the fda's new egg rule went into effect imposing additial safety requirement

on large egg producers and ensuring that there will be re frkda inspections at the facilities. so the jury is still out as to whether the iowa facilities implicated in this infestation represent just a few rot en eggs or whether the safety of this country's egg supply is more like humpty dumpty, shattered and in need of full-scale reconstruction. according to reports, companied owned or operated by one of our witnesses today have a decades' long record of public health, labor and environmental offenses. decoster egg and feed facilities in maine and other states have ooh long history of being found to be responsible for salmonella infections, dumping piles of dead chickens above ground, animal cruelty, worker safety violations and other problems. instead of walking on egg shells to supplwith seat state and federal regulations, the hard-boiled corporate executives in iowa kept facilities from

inspections that showed that ultimately they were overflowing with maneuver and infested by rodents and flies. my home state of massachusetts gets many of the eggs from the maine facilities tied to mr. decoster. lit important for us in massachusetts, in new england new england, to know ether we are at a threat as well. thank you, mr. chairman, for having this hearing. >> thank you, mr. markey. >> mr. chairman, may i ask for unanimous consent re. >> yes. >> i'd like to to entered from senator coburn. he's not blocking the comment. senator reid's comments that coburn is blocking the bill are false. >> i object. i don't believe that's an accurate statement.

i would object to it going in the record. >> there's objection. will not be made part of the record. if you want to submit something later, mr. burgess, to supplement your testimony, i'm sure we can work with it. but right now nothing is going to be entered in the record. that concludes the opening statement by members of the subcommittee. i want to call our first panel of witnesses. our first panel is ms. sarah lewis from freedom, california and ms. carol lobato from littleton, colorado. i would ask you to employees come forward and take a seat at the witness table. >> it's the policy of the subcommittee to take all testimony under oath. please be advised you have a right under the rules of the house to be advised by counsel

during testimony. do either of you wish to be represented by counl? no. >> you both answered no, you don't wish to be represented by unsel. therefore, i'll ask you to rise and raise your right hand and take the oath. do you swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth in the matter pending before this committee? >> i do. >> let the record reflect that the witnesses applied in the affirmative. they're under oath. we look forward to your opening statement. ms. lewis, i'll start with you. if you'd like to pull that mic forward and press the button, a green light should go on. there we go. ready to go. thank you. thank you for being here. >> good afternoon. thank you chairman stupak and chairman waxman and committee members. m honored to be here and speak to you about my experience with salmonella poisons that i got from the recent egg recall. my name is sarah lewis. i'm 30 years old.

i am a mom, a wife and a proud daughter of a small business owner that abides by all of our local and state regulations. i have two beautiful daughters, haley 7, kendall, 4. i have a wonderful house band who served our husband proudly as a marine, chris lewis. not only did this experience affe me, it affected my whole family. my sister stacy also got salmonella poisons from the eggs. the night we ate the cusrd start was at my sister's graduation banquet. my whole family was there, husband, dad, grandma, sister and boyfriend. we were there celebrating this amazing achievement from my sister not suspecting that that night would change our lives for a very long time. my sister and i look back at that night, what if my grandma or one of my daughters would have eat the start? they probably would have died. knowing how sick we were scares the heck out of us. the night after the banquet i

started having severe abdominal cramping. my husband told me to go lie down. during the night i woke up vomiting. i was so embarrassed to have to ask my husband for help. my mom who lives next door came and took one look at me. if you know me, all i wanted to do was stay home and try and feel better. the next day my mom took me to urgent care where i was told they would give me a shot to help me stop throwing up. if i w able to keep water down, in 20 minutes i could go home. 21 minutes later i was being admitted into the hospital for what would turn out to be the first of two long stays. when i was admitted for admitte time i spent 12 hours in the er so sick they were scared to move me. they thought thewere going to have to do emergency bowel surgery because the ct scan showed bowels so inflamed and sick, i was put in icu. i was so sick and so dehydrated and in so much pain i could not see straight. while in icu i started to

develop severe tachycardia and was moved to the critical care heart unit three days. during that time i had to go through things i never want to talk about gain. i was so mortified. when i was discharged, i was so excited. this meant i would be able to go to my daughter's preschool graduation that night. this may seem like a small thing to many of you but meant the world to me. i thought great, i can start the healing process an get back to being a mom, a wife and a daughter. boy, was i wrong. approximately two and a half weeks later still sick as a dog, i called my doctor and when i got to the office he took one look at me and told me i was going back into the hospital. for one moment you can imagine two little girls faces when i have to tell the mommy is going back into the hospital. it was the hardest thing i ever had to do. it was devastating for any 7 or 4-year-oldid. when i was re-admitted i was so dehydrated they d to insert a pick line into my arterial vain

in my right biceps. i was so scared. i was about to have a line inserted into my heart. i proceeded to spend five more days in the hospital with my girls crying and screaming every time they had to leave me. i truly do not know what i would have done without my family and friends during this time. when i was released for the second time i was sure i was on the mend. wrong again. i developed a severe infection called. from all the antibiotics and from being in the hospital. it causes severe diarrhea and cramping, as though i didn't have this already i had to be on antibiotics every six hours for the next 14 days again. and all during this, i found out that the salmonella was still present and raging iny body. this was devastating news to my family and myself. i still have severe crapping, diarrhea, fevers d the strs and fear that the salmonella is present in my body. every day, when i leave to goo work or even just to the grocery store my youngest daughter looks at me and starts crying.

it just breaks my heart. at this whole time i am trying to figure out what has caused my poisoning. one morning my dad is reading the newspaper and an article about my sister and i we were part of the recall. as i started reading about the egg companies it causes my stomach to turn. my family owns a retail butcher shop and as we go through weekly state inspections and quarterly county inspections, we have to maintain and uphold a standa that we are very proud of. we are rated number one butcher shop in all of california for cleanliness and sanitation. to think my sister and i got sick from a company that does not care about their regulations and quality is beyond appalling to me and my family. i do not come today just for me and my sister. i come for every man, woman and child who has gotten sickened by wright county eggs and other producers who did t consider the repercussions of their

actions. i wish i could say this would never happen again. please consider changing your fda policies to closely monitor the egg industry. thank you for your time and listening to my story. sarah lewis. thank you, miss lewis. miss lobato, your testimony please. turn on that mike and pull it closer to your person there. >> good morning, chairman waxman, chairman stew stupak. >> and members of the committee. >> pull the mike up a little bit more. >> thank you for inviting me to washington to share my story. i hope that by doing so together we can make our dinner tabs and our entire food system safer for all of us. my name is carol loba. i live in littleton, colorado. i am 77 years old. and today have been married to my husband for 54 years.

we are retired and blessed with four children and grandchildren. ed is a world war ii veteran and awarded the bronze star and purple heart. for his services in okinawa. my story began the evening of july 10th of this year. the night that ed and i took our grandson drew to the fort restaurant in morrisson, colorado. the fo is an upscale restaurant that serves wild game and other exotic dishes. the fort was the restaurant that hosted president clinton and the other world leaders for the summit of the 8 dinner in 1997. e of the items that we ordered that night was an appetizer of rattlesnake cake. all of us tasted the dish and

none of us particularly liked it. the next afternoon, i felt very sick. at the beginning i started to shake and experienced chills. then came waves of vomiting and explosive diarrhea. my fever rose to 102. later the doctors called this septic shock. ed rushed me to the emergency room. there doctors administered several tests including chest x-rays, cat scan, blood, stool and urine samples. th gave me iv hydration and sent me home after several hours and told me to return if the symptoms did not improve. the next day, i went to see our family doctor as i was experiencing diarrhea, stomach cramps, dizziness andweakness. he examined me and sent me to

swedish hospital in inglewood. the ride to the hospital was very unpleasant. i was quite sick. my electrodes were depleted, my potassium culture comes back as positive for salmonella. bacteria that was both in my blood stream and my intestine. since i take medication for rheumatoid arthritis, which compromises my immune system, i was particularly at risk for an infectious bacteria like salmonella. the infection wiped me out to the point where i was unable to function. i could not even get out of bed without help. i remained at the hospital for an agonizing four nights, five

days, before i was finally discharged to come home. the salmonella infection is no over for me. i have lost my stamina. i often experience indigestion and it is difficult for me to enjoy certain foods. i feel very tired and require rest during the day. i lost eight pounds in the hospital, which was the only plus of this ordeal. my doctors told me that i almost certainly would have died without aggressive intervention. ed and drew, our grandson, were also ill, but their condition was not as serious as mine. the cdc and the jefferson county department of health later determined that the rattlesnake cake that we consumed at the fort, was the source of our illness. through a trace back procedure, investigators found that the eggs used in the rattleske

cake had not been properly cooked. they were from the wright county, iowa, farm. wright county egg farm in iowa. the salmonella found in my cultures was the exact dna match to the salmonella found in the egg farm. the cdc has recently published reports that at least 1500 others in the country have also suffered from the identical strain of salmonella found in theontaminant egg -- contaminated eggs from the wright county eggs and the hillandale farm. the fda has now inspected the farms and found several violations. the published inspection report shows the following -- chicken manure piles four to eight feet high in the hen house live wild birds not chickens, flying around the hen houses.

rodent bureaus along the base board of the hen houses, liquid manure seeping through the concrete foundation, standing water in the chicken manure pit, loose chickens walking through the manure piles and laying their eggs inside. 31 live mice observed in the hen house. live and dead flies too numerous to count inside the hen houses, 65 unsealed rodent holes in the walls of the hen house. these findings are shocking to me, not only as a consumer, but because i have personal experience with chickens and eggs. you see, i grew up on an iowa farm. i was one of five girls and i shared the responsibility for doing the work and the chores that went with the family farm. that included raising chickens from little chicks to the time

they were ready for market, and for the eggs that we gathere and sold. our family -- our farm never looked the way these two farms look. and have been described. we never had any problems because we kept our farm clean, took proper care of our chickens, and did things the correct way. three years ago, this country suffered horrible salmonella outbreak linked to contaminated anut butter that sickened over 700 nationwide. last year, this country was struck by another peanut butter salmonella outbreak that sickened 700, killing nine. tragically. both times survivors like me come before this committee asking for help. but this time, i am the one asking for you on behalf of myself and my family and 1500

others who were sickened. please make our food supply safer. pass legislation that provides funding and more inspectors so that these companies keeps safe. pass legislation that requires testing of products before they leave the factory. pass legislation that rewards companies who do the right thing and punish those who refuse to do so. because if we don't, we will all be here again. thank you respectfully, carol lobato. >> thank you. and thank you both for your testimony. thank you for coming here to washington, d.c., traveling here with your families. and i deeply regret you've suffered as part of this massive outbreak of salmonella, but your testimony is really helped us, telling members of congress your

story but the american people and help us and hopefully move the legislation as you've heard so much this morning and afternoon. ask you a couple questis if i may. in the binder there's tab number 16. mr. waxman and i shod photographs that were taken by federal public health officials in the course of their inspection of the egg facilities. and miss lobato you mentioned them in your testimony as you've had some experience with farms and that. when you look at these photos, what goes through your mind about the conditions of these farms? miss lobato? >> this is a deplorable situation here. filth. >> you said in your testimony you said, maybe we should consider rewarding companies for doing things right so we don't have the food outbreaks. isn't the fact that a consumer would put confidence in let's say a wright farm or hillandale

farm, isn't that enough reward? we shouldn't have to reward people to produce in this case eggs in a proper, sanitary safe condition, should thwe? >> they should all be safe coming from the farm. >> okay. misslewis, anything you want to add on the photographsor anything? >>t's appalling to me. my family owns a retail shop and when i show pictures to people of our facility, they're amazed a at how clean it is and we give tours ofhe whole place. we're not afraid to show people around. we don't have anything that is appalling as this. and -- >> in your butcher shop do you have to -- you have a plan to take care of pests and rodents? >> absolutely. >> yes. >> cannot have them around? >> absolutely. we have strict regulations and guidelines that we have to abide by. we have weekly maintenance services that come out and tend to that so it is nver been a problem. we've never had an infestation of any kind in our facility and

my father, howard, has owned it since 1970 and he took it over from his dad and my dad and mom have always upheld the standds that we are proud of and like i said, we give customers tours. we will show them our facility. we are not afraid to show what we do to everybody who wants to see it. >> you find the inspections at your level in your butcher shop over burdspensome? >> no. >> too much government regulation. >> we are state and we are quarterly county inspected. you know, we don't worry about it. they come in d the last thing we got written up for was because mebody didn't have a hat on. you know, our plant is so clean that when they come in, they say it's honestly a pleasure to come into our facility and they actually want people to come to our plant and view our plant and how my dad has everything, tiles, stl, and he has everything to a certain standard. >> so in areas like food safety, government regulation in your

estimation as owning a butcher shop is good? >> repeat the question. >> sure. government regulation, we hear so much government shouldn't be in our lives get them out of there, we don't need government regulations. in your personal experience has it been helpful to you in your business business? >> absolutely. if we did not have regulations on our facility there's other butcher shops and if they didn't uphold to a certain standard then the product that's out there, is not going to be of a certain level. and if it's not, then this is what's going to happen and this is not acceptable. >> all of our hearings we hear 's always young people, older citizens, or people with compromised immune system susceptible to food poisoning whether e. coli or salmonella or listeria. you don't seem to fit any one of those categories. >> i actually have a compromised immune system. i have asthma and been on steroids on and off for a long period of time due to my asthma and lungs and so they figured that due to my compromised

immune system that's why it hit me so hard. and, you know, i actually had heart surgery when i was 18. so i have a long history of health trouble and so when this came into my system it just overpowered my whole system and it took over. i am still not feeling well. to think that anybody has to go rough this is -- sickening. >> are you off your medication now? >> no. i laugh. i have, no offense, i have a little old lady box of medicine that i take every d and, you know, i don't have a choice. you know, i'm on five to ten different medications and i've lost 30 pounds and my sick joke is okay you can cure my salmonella in 30 more pounds. you know what i mean. it's not funny. it's -- i don't want to be on all these medications to try to keep my immune system up. it's -- it's not acceptable for supposedly someone who's young and 30 and healthy, it's not

okay. >> miss lobato you've completely recovered from your experience? >> i can't say that, no. >> okay. >> there is a lot of things i can't eat. just really hard to digest and if you have heart burn and upset stomach and so forth. >> we're glad you're still here, glad you had your 54th wedding anniversary and celebrating it with us. ed, thank you for your service to our country. let me yield to mr. burguess for questions, please. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you to both of you for sharing what are very compelling stories with us. if you heard in my opening statemt i referenced some of the surveillance cultures that were done at the egg farm 72 swabs and only eight were negative for salmonella. now, obviously me at least, i

spt time on a farm as a youngster and my family was involved in the meat business on my mother's side. i would think that's an outliar. we'll get a chance to ask the egg manufacturers directly, but when you look at the oversight, miss lewis, you suggested that there is several places that regulate you, but you said those are statand county? >> yes. >> so no usda, no fda coming in to your shop? >> we are not a federally regulated plant. we're a state regulated plant. and so the meat that does come in to us, is usda inspected. absolutely. >> but just the notion that you would have that many positive tests, and no surveillance by the federal agency responsible for ascertaining egg safety, i mean that seems a little bit large, does it not? >> absolutely. ifhere is supposed to be a

federal agent on premises at all times that's his job as well as the owner's to make sure and to uphold those standards and he's supposed to be walking around and checking everything and that's why he's there. that's why they are a federal regulated plant there is reasons why you have a federal agent in your building mandating it. there's reasons. and obviously those reasons were not met. >> miss lobato, your experience with the egg business when you had the opportunities to observe it up close and personal, you never saw anything like we were -- these astonishing photographs? >> not at all. >> shared with us this morning? that's sort of my recollection as well, though i will confess to you, i've never spent time on a commercial farm so i don't know the context in which to place these photoaphs. >> our chickens would be what would be called free range now. they walked everywhere. they were all over. >> i am only buying cage-free

free range fregs this point on after seeing those photographs. they're fairly dramatic. miss lewis you became sick in the early part of july. the recall started august 13th, do i have the time frame correct there? >> the banquet was saturday, may 29th. >> you were ill in may? >> yeah. >> miss lobato, your exposure was later? >> july 10th. >> unfortunately when you look at some of these things on the recalls we did tomatoes a coup years ago with salmonella, it does take time. to either of you does that seem unreasonable that time span from may 27th to august 13th or july 2nd to august 13th when the recall was affected? does that seem like an unreasonable perioof time? tough question to ask you. you both suffered with the consequences. >> from my point of view, you know, when you're eating a dinner at a banquet you have ten

things on your plate from butter to chicken to things and on your salad, you as well have several different things. you have to try to figure out if it camfrom what's on your dinner plate, your salad plate, appetizer. i do think that it would take time to try to pinpoint where it came from. >> when were you questioned in the sequence of this about the source of your illness or did it st come up from the dna testing? >> it came up from the dna testing and i read a newspaper article and i called the -- >> you sought tem out rather than -- >> i did. i had to call the county nurse and be like is this me in the newspaper articl and my sister? is this -- am i that person? and she's like, i said, am i? she said yeah. that's how i found out. i had to seek out the information. >> i want to thank both of you for being with us. miss lewis, from the perspective of the former practicing physician, the complication you suffered, one of the most fearsome things you can undergo

is the consequence of antibiotic therapy. had patients with that during my professional lifetime and it is an ordeal and a memorable one. mr. chairman, just before i yield, thanks to our witnesses, before i yield back the balance of my time i want to read, if majority leader reid -- >> right now we've had objections. >> i still have control -- i still control the time m chairman. >> mr. bur gl sneeze you've been directed that statement was not -- >> legislation is a matter of life and death. he should bring to the floor. >> cease. your time has expired. >> as majority leader he sets the schedule. i do not. >> mr. chairman, i just have to say i do n recall -- this is a bipartisan issue. i voted with you on the dang bill. i worked wh you on the dang bill. now, that you have conducted [ inaudible ] conducted the hearing in this fashion. we have to sit here and listen

to you as a member of the senate [ inaudible ] by members of your side when he's not the problem. yeah, he may become a problem senator reid brings it to the floor but senator reid -- he is not the problem. so again, i just -- >> mr. burguess. >> i don't understand why you would turn what is a bipartisan effort into a partisan affair. >> mr. burguess, legislation t of this committee because of the work of many people on this committee, the full committee, democrats and republicans, is bipartisan. and we passed that bill july of 2009. after three years of work by this comttee. and yeah, we're a little frustrated that senate, one person, can put a hold on a bill. >> that is senator reid for the record. senator reid the majority leader. >> and our legislation does not move. you have a beef, take it up with senator coburn, maybe we can move our legislation. with that let me turn it to mr. braillely for questions, please.

>> thank you, mr. chairman. and miss lobato, i'm very pleased to hear you had a lovely childhood growing up in iowa. did any of the comnts i made in my openinstatement ring true with you? >> absolutely. >> now one of the things that struck me about both of your testimony, was that neither one of you prepared the food that made you sick. and that illustrates one of the challenges we have been trying to face on this committee, which is we have a hodge-podge of state and federal food safety regulations that impose different requirements on diffent egg producers depending upon where their facilities are located for making some strides based upon the recent regulation that the fda passed, regulating egg production facilities, but both of you are the living examples of how consumers are at risk through no fault of their own because of cooking techniques that they have no control over.

now, one of the things i want to talk to you about is the mandatory recall authority because as you heard, our committee began pushing for reformf the food safety system for youears and this is the 13t hearing this subcommittee has conducted on food safety in the last four years. our committee authored and successfully passed hr 2749, the food safety enhancement act and included in that legislation as a provision that would give the fda much needed increased authority to issue mandatory recalled tainted food products. i'm going to ask both you have would it surprise you to lrn the fda lacks the authority to issue a mandatory recall? >> that's surprising. >> yeah. and while the two iowa farms in question did issue voluntary recalls, do you two believe that fda should have to rely upon the company's goodwill to do that when the public's health is at risk?

>> no. >> no. >> now, one of the things that we know is that the legislation like the house bill that we've been talking about would give the food and drug administration the power to require the recall of a contaminated food that is needed. do you think that would be a good idea for food safety for consumers in this country? >> it would be a start. >> now, miss lewis, you spent a lot of time talking about the incredible impact that your illness from this salmonella contamination had on your quality of life. >> absolutely. >> and i think there's this great misrception in the public that these symptoms that people deal with from salmonella contamination, are like a minor case of intestinal flu. >> no. it was so severe, i didn't even want to leave my house. i didn't even want to go to work. i work right across the street. i didn't want to take my kids to school. to be blunt, you don't want to

sneeze or cough. you -- it's miserable. life as you know it completely changes. >> and you don'tven want to move? >> oh. you can't move because you're in such physical pain from the stomach cramps and you have like your whole body he to toe, is in agony. i was in fetal position for i don't know how long. i couldn't even move. >> you talked about the need to insert something called a pick line into your biceps. can you tell us more about what that was and what it was designed to do? >> yeah. absolutely. i was so dehydrated they cld not find a vain to insert an iv in and they needed to get antibiotics, steroids and fluid into me as quickly as they could. and my doctor suggested a pick line and it goes right here in your arm and once it goes in, they do an x-ray to make sure that the line is actually properly inserted into your heart and, you know, to my knowledge once it goes in, it's a pretty permanent port and i have czars from it and i will

always have those scars. it was something i had to do otherwise i would not be able to ha the medication i needed. >> and miss lobato, giving you the chance to make the same type of comment, what was this like for you on a daily basis to deal with the symptoms from your salmonella contamination? >> well, you're just so severely sick and as she said, you really can't go very far from the bathroom and you're just -- you're so tired you're so fatigued, worn out, you see the bed and you just want to flop in it. another end result is that you really -- you have a hard time trusting food. >> let's talk about that briefly. did you -- do you remember having a duck egg, miss lobato? >> no, i don't think so.

>> in the 1920s and 30s, duck eggs were more pop pla than chicken eggs, a result of a salmonella problem with those eggs they basically disappeared from the american table. as a result of those problems, there were many food safety bills that were passed to address the problem and try to protect consumers. we need to bring that same level of focus in 2010 and protect consumers from these foodborne illnesses and thank you for your testimony. >> thank you. >> questions, please? >> thank you m chairman. again, thanks for being with us today. having been one that had food poisoning twice, a lot of us go to a lot of events and you eat what they put out in front of you and i can commiserate with you on what happened because i know for two to three days in my case, i know i was down and you're absolutely right, you don't want to get too far from home.

i can really em fa thize with you on that. and your background sounds like my mother's. she grew up on a 100 acre farm on ohio and they had cows and petition a pigs and chickens and my mom to this day still likes brown eggs the best. it's one of those things that our agriculture has changed through the years. i've got to ask this question of both of you. in rding your testimony and hearing you talk about it. d as it's been brought up about that you didn't prepare the food, i have to ask you this, what is rattlesnake cake and how is that prepared? is that something that -- is it raw, baked, fried? how is that prepared? >> this is kind of -- a bit of an odd -- exotic restaurant. it's built like a fort. and they specialize in meats of, well, supposedly early -- the

1800s, early 1900s and they have elk and buffalo and bison and all kinds of things. but one of the appetizers is ratt rattlesnake cake it comes like a littlerab cake, small. they apparently boil the rattlesnake for six hours or something and then they grind it up, and it's with bread crumbs and eggs, and spices, hold it all together. and it comes in a little plate as an appetizer and had some green sauce on the top of it. relish, garnish. and i understand that that's where the raw egg was or the uncooked egg, was in the relish that was on the top. >> so it wasn't the breading that was holding the whole thing together. >> i don't believe so. i'm not sure that that's been determined at this point. >> thank you.

>> i just wanted to say our farm was not a chien farm, per se. we had all kinds of animals. pigs and chickens. >> sounds like where my mom grew up. miss lewis, with a custard tart, is that -- my wife's not here to help me out on those things, is that something that's baked or what is that? ist -- something raw in there? how is that prepared, do you know? >> from what i was told, it's like a cheesecake base and the bakery that made it, they always use a pastorized egg solution and that day they happened to run out of that and sarted using whole eggs and so that's where the salmonella came from, was the whole eggs. but to my knowledge it is like a baked kind of dessert and then the -- to a certain point so it still stays like a custard. >> thank you very much. mr. chairman, i yield back. >> thank you. >> questions please?

>> thanks, mr. chairman. this restaurant, the fort, is a rt that's been around for many, many years and as miss lobato pointed out, this was a restaurant where they even had a big event when the g-8 came to denver some years ago. and so what i think miss lobato is trying to say is, this kind of contamination can happen anywhere. even at the very nicest restaurants or just little plac and that's what concerns all of us. i want to ask both of you, miss lobato, the food you ate was in i think july 11th, around the first part of july, correct? >> july 10th. >> and miss lewis, the food that you ate was in -- at the end of may. >> that's correct. >> that was maybe six weeks apart between the two of you when you had those. do you think that -- and, of course, the recall didn't happen until late august.

so do you think that's an unreonable amount of time to identify the source of the contamination and to get these products off the shelves? >> well, you know, it's funny my sister stacy and i were number one and number two in all of california and for her and i to be the first and second, you know, to me it slijs a long time. to the person who's number 500 it happened maybe a couple weeks later when they found out. so, being the first and second person, of course it's going to seem like a longer period of time than it would to somebody who got sick later. >> but what i'm saying is, what you described was the bakery that made those tarts, had used a different kind of egg solution that day. theoretically, iwouldn't have been that hard to figure out that was different and then to look where those eggs came back, came from, and trace it back to the farm in iowa, right? >> true. like i said before, there's also ten things on my plate for

dinner, ten things in my salad, appetizer. so, in fact, it comes from x, y or z it's hard to tell at that time until you start actually pulling out everything and researching it. so as they start researching it then i do feel you know what i mean, it was done appropriately. you can't tell if it's this or this because there's so many different components to what you receive at a banquet. >> would you be surprised to know we can tell if it's this or this and if you have a traceability system you can trace it because i mean part of the problem we have now, is that the food and drug administration, as we -- as you've told mr. brayly, they don't have mandatory recall authority and we don't have traceability, so it is harder to figure out where the components come from, but technologically, we have the ability throughout our food industry to be able to trace where things came from. so if they had taken all of the components on your plate, and

they had been able to trace them back, it would have moved much more quickly. does that make sense to you? >> that seems appropriate, yes. >> and did anybody else from that graduation party get sick besides you and your sister? >> there was to my knowledge another gentleman that got sick as well. we were at the graduation banquet and the next night a prom and people from that prom -- >> also got sick. >> yeah. so, you know, you had a group of people that got sick. we saw this with some of the other outbreaks as well, the peanut butter and other ones. where lots of people were getting sick and when you see a big group like that getting sick, it's something that the state health officials really pay attention to. >> absolutely. >> and miss lobato, did you want to add to that? >> i just wanted to say that the department of health for jefferson county and for denver were on my case while i was in the hospital. they called three days in and

wanted to know what i had eaten at the restaurant, what i had eaten for a week before. so i was very impressed at how fast they were on the situation. >> right. you know what, w've been finding the last few years with these food born illness outbreaks, oftentimes it's the public health officials who identify it. they're the first ones. but because we don't have a modern food safety and tracing system, it takes many weeks to then track down where that came from. so if you had the components of our legislation that we passed in a -- sometimes you hear us sniping up here but we actually passed this bill in a bipartisan way through the house, and if you had that in place, once those state officials identified what it was, it would be a lot easier than to trace it back to a source and it would eliminate many new cases of the illness because you could get the recall

going much more quickly. thank you. thank you bo for coming again. >> thank you. 1234 mr. doyle for questions. >> thank you, mr. chrman. miss lewis, thank you for your testimony and miss lobato, happy anniversary and thank you. you know, i appreciate the fact that you come here today because it's important we put a face on these problems. chairman said earlier, people talk all the time about this government regulation and let's get the government off our backs and, you know, no more regulation, like we sit here every day thinking of ways to harass businesses and make them lose money and go out of business. the reality is, the fact that most americans can take for granted that when they turn their water spigot on, the water they drink isn't going to poison them or the food they eat is going to be safe or the air they breathe in their neighborhood isn't going to cause them grave harm, a lot of is due to the fact that things like this

happen. and one of the ways we address that is to come up with regulations to make sure that when food is being produced it's done in a certain way. there's standards in place. the same with how our water is treated and what you can put in the water and put into the r. and you know, sometimes you can have the best regulations in the world and if you don't have it enforced, if there's not proper oversight, even good regulations fall short. we saw that in the gulf of mexico not too long ago with the terrible oil spill. so i hope americans see this today, they see two people and they look at both of you and hear your stories and say, that could be my grandmother, that could be my mom, my sister, and people realize there's a reason for this and that yeah, we do need good regulations and we need good oversight. and when everybody does things the way they're supposed to do it, people can make money and businesses can thrive and we can all feel good about the fact that what's put on our tables or when we go to a restaurant, that

something terrible isn't going to happen to us after we leave that restaurant. that's really the purpose of the hearing today is to get to the bottom of these things and i think more than anything we'll hear today, it will be your personal stories that will touch many of the people in the u.s. senate and whoever's got that hold over the. the senate is a strange institution. one of these guys can hold up legislation no matter what it is. i had a bill that passed this year, that a senator had a hold on, so i went over and talked to him and he listed his hold and then another put a hold on the bill. so, i went over and talked to that senator. he lifted his hold. then i was told there's a secret hold on the bill and now we don't know which senator has the hold on it. it's a strange institution over there. and sometimes it takes stories like this to move them to action. so thank you for coming today and helping us out. and helping your fellow citizens in america have safe food to eat. mr. chairman, i yield back. >> thank you. >> thank you.

>> thank you, mr. doyle. seeing no further members ask qutions i want to thank you again for coming and for helping us out and i know you came here on your own free will and with your own expense so we appreciate it. on behalf of the congress and the american people, thank you for being here. thank you. >> thank you. >> mr. chairman -- >> mr. burguess. >> wonder if i might be recognized for the purpose of entering into the cole low question with the chairman. >> sure. go ahead. >> mr. chairman, is the not true that under committee rule 3 subsection d under questioning the right to interrogate a witness before the committee or any of its subcommittees alternate between e majority and minority members each member shall be entitled to five minutes of interpretationgation of the witnesses is that your understanding of the rule? >> to question witnesses that is correct. >> five minutes of time was to be controlled by the ranking

member of the committee and 30 seconds of that time were taken from me. could i ask the chairman's indulgence to restore that time on the next panel of witnesses? >> no, mr. burguess. you were instructed that there was a -- your unanimous consent was denied and you tried to violate wishes of this subcommittee by going back door, you said you were done with your estions, it's not unusual of members to end less than five minutes, we yield back our time and move on. i asked you not to read it. you insisted upon reading it. i let you read until your five minutes expired and then muted your mike. so you had your five minutes. you chose to use your last 30 seconds or whatever to read a statement. i'm not going to give you more time with the next witnesses. >> mr. chairman, with all due spect, you muted my mike immediately upon my beginning to read the statement and further, in regards to that controlling

of five minutes as you know it's a well established pattern, especially in this committee that members may use their time to talk about whatever they wish. sometimes they offer sill little low questions that are think are entirely far afield but i don't object and i don't recall anyone ever being treated the way of having their microphone silenced. i look upon that as a period of censorship you exercised and i feel very strongly about this that i think that was wrong and i think this committee needs to rectify it. >> the record is clear what happened. if we have to read it back later we can. you had your five minutes. even after the objections of this committee, you decided to go ahead and read a statement which you asked unanimous consent to be submitted, members on our side objected. you should not then if you wanted to follow the rules of the house you would not have tried to back door it by reading it in. i let you go. excuse me, don't interrupt me. i let you go until your five

minutes was up. you had your fl five minutes. this has happened before. i've been here 18 years. in fact, even up here, i could mute your mike because it says private and mute all. this is not the first time it happened. it's happened many times. you have to go by the rules of this committee. and by the ruling of the chair. you cannot take and make your own rules as we go along. you are violating the wishes of the committee, violating the rules of this subcommittee and you are violating the property quorum theay we conduct hearings. my job, my responsibility is to move this hearing forward, conduct it in a fair and impartial manner i did that. >> i would submit that rule 3, subparagraph d was violated by the ch

>> it's the policy of this subcomommittee to take all testimony do any wish to be represented by counsel. gentlemen wish to be represented by counsel? >> yes. >> mr. decoster. just give us the name of your counsel. >> jan cramer. >> okay. and during your testimony, before you answer a question, if you would like to consult with your counsel, you have a right to do so. >> thank you. >> anyone else? >> john bode. >> mr. bethel. press the button in front of you, sir.

>> yes. i have crown sul here. >> would you state the counsel's name? >> tom green. >> okay. and again if you wish to consult with them during questions, you may. but the questions have to come from you or the answers have to come from you. i'm sorry. and mr. manscow? >> no. >> no counsel with you. okay. all right. so we have that on the record. again, any time during the questioning you wish to consult with your counsel you may. raise your right hand to take the oath. do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give to be the truth, whole truth, nothing but the truth in the matter pending before this committee? >> yes. >> yes, sir. p. >> let the record reflect each witness answered in the affirmative. they are now under oath. we will now hear a five-minute opening statement from our witnesses. you may submit a longer

statement for inclusion in the hearing record. so mr. decoster, on my far left, if you want to start. your opening statement. please do. press the green light there on that microphone and pull it forward and we can hear you. go ahead. >> commissioner, mr. chairman, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify. my name is austin decoster. i go by jack. my son peter and i are here to answer your questions. we -- >> egg industry must be -- >> can we ask the room be cleared. >> [ inaudible ]. decoster and your cohorts are a piece of the larger picture. salmonella poisoning is present in all egg farms as admitted by

decoster and his lawyer. additionally, 230 million chickens are killed each year to the eglin industry. >> i would ask you crease and desist, please, sir. the hearing must continue. >> all eggs kill. all eggs kill. all eggs kill. all eggs kill. all eggs kill. all eggs kill. . >> okay. >> we resume these hearings. it's not unusual for us to have a few outbursts whether it's on this orside or that side. go ahead, please. >> okay. we were horrified to learn that our eggs may have made people sick. we apologized to everyone who may have been sickened by eating

our eggs. i have prayed several times each day for all of these people, for improved health. for generations our family has been producing eggs and i have spent my life as a chicken farmer. i've been blessed to be able to work with my sons on our farms as well. over the years, we have grown to be pretty big in producing eggs. unfortunately, we got big quite a while before we stopped acting like we were small. what i mean by that is, we were big before we started adopting sophisticated procedures to be sure we met all of the government requirements. while we were big, but still acting like we were small, we got into trouble with government requirements several times.

i am sorry for those failings. i accept the responsibility for those mistakes in our operations. eventually i realized that to put those problems behind us, will have to become very good at meeting all of the government requirements. so for about ten years now, we have been focused on doing just that. we are moving forward. we have put in place effective employee training, systems, additional monitoring and control procedures, to assure compliance with government requirements. when necessary, we hired top experts to be sure the procedures are right. also, in critical areas, including reduction of salmonella, we have been going beyond government requirements in an effort to improve our

operations. with all these systems, we have made important strides and i'm proud of our work. still these challenges never stop. >> does that complete -- go ahead. does that complete your testimony? >> yes. that completes it. >> okay. >> mr. chairman, my name is peter decoster, the chief operating officer for wright county egg of iowa. in other words, i run the wright county egg farms. permit me to begin with a short overview with wright county egg farming operation in iowa. 350 people are employed at our iowa farms. we have five farms with 73 barns, each about 33,000 square feet in size. almost all of the barns are a two-story structure with the hens located in the upper part of the barn. in all wright county has 5.8

million laying hence. our farms produce approximately 2.3 million dozen eggs per week for about 1.4 billion eggs per year. in addition, wright county egg operating the barns at the hillandale farm near iowa with ten barns and approximately 1 million laying hens, producing more than 435,000 dozen eggs per week. each of the six farms we operate is at a different location. no two farms are less than one mile from another. in addition to our farms, at a separate location wright county egg operates a feed mill which produces our poultry feeds. it was inspected by iowa with no major deficiencies found. the inspection report was transmitted to us by the fda in may. some background on the salmonella and how our egg farms are monitored for the bacteria

may be useful. regretly se is a fact of life in the egg industry. that is why all egg cartons bear the safe food handling instructions and fda model code instructions that eggs be thoroughly cooked. like everyone else, we have fought se for a long time. we have not always been successful. today, we have extensive se reduction practice that were unknown in previous years. to protect against se contamination our farm follows stringent standards for egg production, processing and transportation to ensure both the quality and safety of eggs when they reach our customers. in addition, the following food safety guidelines and the new fda egg safety rules, our farm also established in july of 2009 a voluntary overall salmonella intervention and risk reduction program which sets specific protocols in the areas of chicks

and breeder flocks, biosecurity, cleaning and disinfecting between flocks, management, vaccination, and refrigeration. further, wright county egg has been working with two top scientists to enhas our biosecurity and bird health needs. they provide outside counsel to design effective programs, monitor their performance, and make operational requirements as necessary. of particular potential assistance to your investigation, dr. charles hallbaker has advised us on bird matters. he is recognized as one of the world's leading authority in se control and i appreciate his presence in the hearing room today. as a tool in our se production program, wright county began vaccations of our flocks. that vaccination program and the volunteer environmental testing program that guided it and other operational decisions, is outlined in our written testimony.

so we have had extensive se reduction programs designed to meet all regulatory requirements and go substantially beyond requirements of additional measures, notably our se vaccination program. so we were stunned to learn that our eggs appeared to be responsible for an se disease outbreak. in mid august fda requested that wright county egg undertake a voluntary recall of our eggs. we promptly did so in cooperation with fda. our first recall was announced on august 13th, 2010. which involved three of our farms. then our second recall was announced on august 18th of 2010, and addressed eggs from other two farms. an extensive food safety investigation followed. at this time we cannot be absolutely certain of the root cause of the contamination of the eggs we produced, however we have we view most likely root cause of contamination to be the meat and bone meal that was an ingredient in our feed. at this point i would appreciate

a projection of the first slide we provided to the committee. meat and bone meal was produced at a rendering facility part of the production process in rendering involves cooking carcasses to a temperature that would eliminate se. however, as always in food safety matters, there is a potential for recontamination, either at the rendering facility and the transportation from the rendering facility or subsequently after the meet and bone meal is delivered to wright county egg. in particular bone meal that entered our bin where the ingredient could have been contaminated the bin and additional meat and bone meal subsequently added to the bin. the next slide. not only is this sus spish spigs consistent with the fda test results but it also is consistent with the fact that the only hillandale farms operation to produce eggs that tested positive for the se contamination was the aldsen

farm which received its feed from the wright county eggs feed mill. all of the flocks that had been proven to be the source of this se outbreak received feed from the wright county eggs feed mill. my written testimony outlines the exhaustive changes that wright county has undertaken to take every precaution against this ever happening again. by focusing on our flocks, our feed, and our worker biosecurity protocols we intend to demonstrate our commitment to the production of eggs of high quality and safe. we look forward to answering your questions in an accurate understanding of what caused this foodborne disease outbreak might be achieved. thank you. >> thank you. mr. bethel, your opening statement, please, sir. >> mr. chairman, i do not have -- >> turn on the mike, please. >> mr. chairman, i do not have an opening statement. >> okay. thank you. >> mr. manco. >> mr. chairman, dr. burguess

and other subcommittee members. my name is dwyane. i am hillandale farms of iowa incorporated production representative. i grew up in minnesota and upon graduation from high school spent nearly 13 years working on a family farm with my father and brother in hillandale, minnesota. in the late 1980s i entered college to study business administration. while completing my studies in 1991, i learned about feed and poultry production while working for an independent owned feed company. after graduation, i continued working with feed and poultry flocks with a farmer's cooperative in oakland, minnesota. based upon cooperative. based on my knowledge of poultry flo flocks, i was invited to manage the farmer's cooperative when it began construction in 1998. i was the general manager at the iva facility in west union,

iowa, it wiuntil it was purchas december of 2007. i left in 2008 and returned at the request of hillendale farms of iowa in march of 2010. i no you serve as hillendale's production representative at the west union facility. it will probably help our discussion today if i divine a few industry terms. when i talk about egg production, i mean the first of three steps in getting eggs to our customers. egg production encompasses every aspect of farming and raising the hens up until the eggs are ready for processing. the next step, egg processing, involving cleaning, grading, and packaging the eggs. the final phase which involves marketing and distribution has traditionally been hillendale's area of expertise. in order to get fresh quality eggs to market, hillendale must be able to rely on good production and good processing. from 2008 until recently, hillendale relied on wright

county for production in iowa. in its 50 years of existence, i believe that hillendale farms, while not perfect, historically has had a record and reputation for supplying the nation with safe, quality eggs. in fact, to the best of my knowledge, hillendale farms had never been involved in a recall until three weeks ago when the fda told us that seven people had become ill from salmonella at a mexican restaurant that received hillendale, iowa, eggs. there are many other potential sources of salmonella contaminations in restaurants, and we were, to be honest, shocked by the allegation. during the prior four months we had shipped about 170 million eggs from iowa and it was difficult to understand why fda was saying that our eggs were responsible for seven people sick at one restaurant. the recall has, however, forced hillendale to take a hard look at our operations and will in the long run make our operations better. on august 20th, we voluntarily

recalled the relevant eggs, diverted all other eggs from those facilities to breaking facilities and have been cooperating with the fda, state officials, our customers, and this subcommittee ever since. and even if the source of the salmonella illness is never confirmed, where we have fallen short in iowa we are committed to improving our operations. at alden, where hillendale farms has no ownership interest, we have terminated our marketing relationship with its owner wright county because we were disappointed in the test results there. at the west union facility, we have redoubled our safety efforts and fully addressed all of the issues identified on the fda's 483 report. we would like to emphasize, however, that no egg from west union has tested positive for se. nonetheless, hillendale has retained the former associate commissioner of foods at fda and the former head of food safety at several fortune 200 companies

including h.j. heinz, campbell's soups, and tricon restaurants to conduct an intensive assessment of food safety at our west union facility and offer recommendations. you have our commitment that we will implement any and all of these recommendations. moreover, hillendale farms will continue to cooperate with all government officials, including the subcommittee and i look forward to answering any questions that you may have. thank you. >> thank you. that concludes testimony. we'll open up for questions. i will begin. mr. breath ethel, following the outbreak of the salmonella, officials inspected our facilities in seven days. during the course of the fda's investigation, your employee, who is providing testimony to the committee today, accompanied the agents as they conducted the inspection. i'd like to ask you about an e-mail you received on august 21st, 2010. in this e-mail you received, he

summarized his notes from the inspection. he wrote, barn seven, put lids on the dead chicken barrels to reduce investigator access. barn eight, wet manure due to water leaks. didn't say it needed to be removed, but they didn't like it. barn nine, saw old dead birds in a few cages and old chicken heads on egg belts. here is my question and again you're only oath, sir, mr. bethel, prior to receiving the e-mail were you aware of the conditions he noted? >> i respectfully decline to answer the question based on the protection afforded me under the fifth amendment of the constitution. >> mr. bethel, i understand that you're invoking your right against self-incrimination which is your prerogative under the fifth amendment. is it your intention to invoke the right to refuse any questions during this hearing? >> yes.

>> okay. then i will refrain from asking you additional questions about this subject matter and request that other members also refrain from asking you further questions. mr. decoster -- i'm sorry, mr. burgess? >> just simply will i be allowed to question mr. bethel? >> you can, but if -- i mean, i think he's made it pretty clear he's going to take the fifth amendment to any questions so -- >> reserve the right to question the witness. >> all right, you reserve the right during your time. mr. jack decoster, if you will, in your testimony you admit that your facilities had problems in the past. that's indisputable. there have been several outbreaks associated with your eggs in two states, specifically maryland and new york have been mentioned in which your eggs were banned. your response in your written testimony you indicated that when you were small and that you

have put those problems behind us was what you said. my question to you is this, if you've cleaned up your operations, as you say, why did this outbreak happen? >> mr. congressman, if i could answer that -- >> that's directed at your father, so let him answer if he can. can you answer that question? >> well, i'll try to answer it, but i'm having trouble hearing. >> okay. >> could you speak up a little bit more, please? >> sure. in your testimony you admitted your facilities have had problems, that's indisputable. there have been several outbreaks associated with your eggs in two states we've heard from today, maryland and new york where your eggs were actually banned. your response and in your written testimony you said this all occurred when decoster farms were small and that you've put those problems behind you. so my question is, if you've cleaned up yo