Speech by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Georgia), July 24, 2001

Speech by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Georgia), July 24, 2001
Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I believe the gentleman from Michigan has raised a very important point for us to ponder. Unfortunately, we kind of find ourselves as a body in a ``darned if you do and darned if you don't situation.'' Because there are areas that have been reported to us that the best way to get to them is through aerial fumigation, and I think the gentleman knows that.

But it is certainly not the intent of our Congress to hurt children, hurt livestock, hurt crops and do inadvertent harm to the population of these countries. I am not sure what the solution is, but I do want to say there is a reason that we are doing this aerial fumigation, as the learned gentleman knows. And I want to say that as a member of the committee, and I am with the chairman on this, we want to work with the gentleman on this in any way we can, and I appreciate the gentleman bringing it up.

Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Chairman, has the gentleman ever heard of manual destruction of the crops as a process?

Mr. KINGSTON. Reclaiming my time, yes. Unfortunately, some of the reports say in a high, mountainous remote area, the best way to get to them is from the air because of the resistance.

I do agree that manual destruction is superior. One thing the gentleman has not mentioned is the pollution to the water that comes downstream when these agents are applied. We do need to continue to work this thing through, and figure out the best way to destroy the crops.

As of October 3, 2001, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r107:@FIELD(FLD003+h)+@FIELD(DDATE+20010724)