Good morning.

I’d like to start by thanking the Chairman for holding this important hearing on the National Animal Health Laboratory Network and thanking our witnesses for their testimony today. Since its inception over 20 years ago, NAHLN has grown to include over 60 labs that make up our detection system for animal disease. As I always say, food security is national security, and the laboratory network plays a key role in ensuring we have a safe and secure food supply chain. 

The laboratory network is part of the foundation that allows us to respond rapidly to animal disease outbreaks while simultaneously keeping our food supply chain safe.

The only way that we can properly trace and avoid further spread or spillover infection is if we are able to quickly and accurately identify it and then use that information to allocate the appropriate resources to address the problem. NAHLN is a great example which highlights the importance of how federal and state governments can and must work together. In California, we have our main Level One Lab at the University of California, Davis, which has played a critical role in coordinating with the laboratory network by providing resources throughout California and the nation in combating Hi-Path Avian Flu.  This is just one example that demonstrates the importance of the laboratory network and the role it plays in the greater effort to prevent animal disease from spreading in the United States.

When we have multi-state outbreaks of animal disease, such as Hi-Path Avian Influenza, it is essential that we have centralized operations to coordinate across states. The role that the NAHLN central office plays in combating disease response came into the spotlight earlier this year in February when Politico reported that the Trump administration fired a quarter of the employees in the central coordinating office. This occurred in the middle of the prolonged Hi-Path Avian Influenza outbreak, and I cannot imagine a worse time to decide to cut positions that coordinate disease response. Think about it. We’ve seen uninformed and short-sighted decisions such as this one made across the government by this Administration. We have already started to see how these decisions impact our ability to respond to disease, disaster, and other events that put communities in jeopardy.

I have always been supportive of programs that combat animal disease, and it is critical that we continue to support systems such as the Laboratory Network, along with corresponding research that allows us to create better diagnostic tools and preventative measures with the best available science. I look forward to hearing from our expert witnesses about improvements that could be made or more effective ways that we can prevent and detect animal disease.

Thank you, and I yield back.