A Change in the Tide
Terrorism – the reality, the threat, the perception – is now the driving force in the nation’s capital. Political agendas that cannot be justified as beefing up national security have been scrapped or put on indefinite hold.
Witness this recent headline on a Washington Post article: “War Effort Pushes ‘Green’ Issues Aside: Environmental Groups Rethink Agenda as Nation Focuses on Anti-Terror Fight.” Or this headline: “U.S. Moves to Tighten Security on Borders in Wake of Terrorist Attacks, Congress and INS are Changing Their Priorities.”
Prior to September 11, for example, it was assumed the Senate would not go along with the administration’s proposal to drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, citing it as an environmentally sensitive area. However, lawmakers will likely find it too politically sensitive to go against President Bush’s linking America’s security with less dependence on Middle Eastern oil. “The less dependent we are on foreign sources of crude oil, the more secure we are at home,” the president declared.
Global warming, something that Bush hasn’t given much credence to, is certainly less of an issue in the current political climate. And clean air and water regs are not hot topics either, as officials focus attention and dollars on possible bioterrorist acts of intentional contamination, worrying less about effluents into the water supply or emissions into the air from American industry.
The Bush administration, before September 11, had talked of a spirit of cooperation along the Mexican border, even of liberalizing immigration laws with our southern neighbor. Now the talk is of tightening up our borders, not only by air and sea, but also by land, north and south – but particularly north. Currently, U.S. Customs agents check about one-third of the trucks coming here from Mexico, but few are inspected crossing from Canada.
Senator Byron Dorgan, a Democrat whose state, North Dakota, abuts Canada, had this to say about border security there: “It’s a very porous border, and you’ve got a lot of entry points into this country with nothing more in the way of security than an orange cone in the middle of the road after 10 o’clock at night.”
Note that Congress approved a tripling of patrols along the 4,000-mile U.S./Canadian border. However, there’s a catch: Of the $40 billion Congress okayed for emergency funds to combat terrorism, the White House said there will be none left to hire any more agents.
The farm bill, if the administration gets its way, will be on hold for a while. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, reacting to House passage of its version of the farm bill, said: “Given the state of the nation, consideration of large new financial commitments that do not require immediate action are not timely. We have one year to work together…before the current farm bill expires.”
The administration would like to spend less money on the farm bill than the House would, cutting subsidies and focusing more on conservation and trade.
Food Under Attack
What is “big” in Washington right now is food safety.
As if Salmonella, E-coli, listeria monocytogenes, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, tuberculosis, and foot and mouth disease weren’t enough to plague the poultry and livestock industries, enter the threat of terrorist attack on the food supply. And it hasn’t helped that a bacteria that causes livestock disease – anthrax – has been used as a weapon against humans!
When anthrax contamination was discovered on Capital Hill, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) drew on his farm experience to try to downplay the threat: “I grew up with anthrax. We had it all the time. You just took penicillin.”
The administration was singing a different tune, with $2 million in grants to 32 states to establish “a permanent agriculture infrastructure investment fund to continuously protect agriculture.”
Ag Secretary Ann Veneman noted that meat and poultry inspectors were on “heightened awareness” at ports and in food processing plants. Security has also been increased at “appropriate U.S. Department of Agriculture facilities,” she added.
Robert Robinson, spokesman for the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, called the U.S.’s approach to food safety “a patchwork structure” with “reason to doubt our ability to detect and fully respond to an organized bioterrorist attack.”
Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) is after a new Food Safety Administration that would bring food safety issues under one government agency rather than the current fragmented system. The administration isn’t likely to back his legislation, however.
How to Zap Anthrax
Anthrax spores are known to be hardy. They lived for at least 40 years on an island off Scotland after germ-laden weapons were tested there during World War II. They were finally killed off by drenching the island with formaldehyde and sea water. That reportedly killed off everything else on the island, too. Bleach has been used at some post offices.
The feds in Washington were trying fumigation of some buildings with chlorine dioxide; others were slated to be treated with a newly developed soap-like solution containing hydrogen peroxide. Said Brian Kalamenka, president of the company that came up with the soapy mix: “You want it safe as baby shampoo but want it to kill the worst things on the planet.” This stuff, he said, fits the description.
Why not irradiate the mail to rid it of dangerous pathogens, asks Jeffrey Barach, vice president at the National Food Processors Association. Irradiation of food is at fairly low doses, he explained, to preserve taste. “With mail, of course,” he added, “nobody tastes mail. You could give it fairly healthy dosages.”
Slumber Party
With constituent mail stashed in anthrax-contaminated mail rooms, for who knew how long, lawmakers were writhing. Mail, they know, is their political lifeline – particularly those from largely rural areas where fewer residents are e-mailing. As one staffer put it, “Nothing gets around faster back home than news of an unanswered letter.”
Note: While offices on Capitol Hill were closed because of fears of anthrax contamination, some lawmakers were bemoaning more than their loss of mail. They were without a place to lay their heads.
Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) has no Washington residence other than his office, where he sleeps while in town. A colleague, also a Democrat from Mississippi, lent his sofa, as did a Connecticut Democrat.
Briefly
• Headline in the National Chicken Council’s Washington report: Fly the Hungry Skies: Airlines To Reduce Meal Service.
• A year ago, the Food and Drug Administration proposed banning the fluoroquinolone family of drugs from chicken feed, due to an increase in drug resistance. One drug company stopped the practice; the only other one doing it has continued. A drug in that family is Cipro, the drug of “choice” for human anthrax.
December 2001 Render