| CRS Report: RS20401 - Agricultural Quarantine: Congress Debates Reform of Plant Protection AuthoritiesAgricultural ... (2001 words) |
 | APHIS policymakers, some Members of Congress, and other observers, have argued for several years that these statutes are outmoded and conflicting and that they complicate APHIS' ability to safeguard agriculture in the context of new international trade obligations and rapidly commercializing technologies, such as biocontrol. |
| Four bills to modernize APHIS statutes are being considered in the 106th Congress (H.R. 910 and S. The principal differences among these bills concern the issue of federal versus state preemption, and the degree to which APHIS should expand its plant protection authority, currently focused on agriculture, to include the protection of natural ecosystems. |
| APHIS officials also pointed out that Congress could not have foreseen important future technologies such as biological controls and genetically engineered crops when it passed the original plant quarantine laws. |
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