Good morning and welcome.

For those of you who have not been following this subject, this is the subcommittee’s second hearing on noxious weeds and plant pests.  On May 8, I held a field hearing in Nampa, Idaho to discuss the problem of noxious weeds and plant pests.  While federal agencies, state and local governments seldom agree on anything, I have noticed this is one subject where everyone can agree something must be done.

Noxious weeds are a serious problem on both public and private lands across the nation. In the West where much of our land is entrusted to the management of the federal government, noxious weeds infest an estimated 70 million acres of land.  The situation on private lands is not much better.  In the last seven years, for Idaho alone, crop losses due to weeds have exceeded $1 billion.  These yield losses occurred even after landowners spent millions of dollars and hours on weed management.  The spread of noxious weeds are like a slow burning wildfire, that takes land out of production, forces native species off the land, and interrupts the commerce and activities of all those who rely on the land for their livelihoods  – especially farmers, ranchers, and recreationists.

Because of these problems, I introduced S. 910, the “Noxious Weed Coordination and Plant Protection Act,” which will focus the efforts of the federal government to better fight this wildfire.  It would organize and expand the function of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and appoint it as the lead government agency in this fight.  It also would improve the Presidents Executive Order on Invasive Species by providing more state representation in the development of an Invasive Species Management Plan and shortening the deadline for an action plan by nine months.

Stopping the spread of noxious weeds is a two pronged effort.  First, we must prevent new foreign weed species from becoming established in the United States, which is the focus of the first three titles of my bill.  Secondly, we must stop or slow the spread of the noxious weeds and plant pests we already have, which will be accomplished through title four. Noxious weeds do not recognize property boundaries, so if we want to win this war on weeds, we need to be fighting at the federal, State, and local levels.

With the passage of this legislation, I hope to provide the authority the federal land managers need to take part in this fight.  I am also working to increase federal appropriations for both research and weed fighting.  With the coordination of federal, state, local, university, and private resources into one unified effort, we can win this war on weeds.

I welcome the panels here today and look forward to hearing their testimony.