mr. chairman , as i indicated earlier , i intend to vote for this bill because i think the gentleman from texas has done a reasonable job , given the limitations placed on him by the budget resolution . 
having said that , i do not want anyone to think that i am enthusiastic about the result . 
i am not . 
i think that after we pass this bill today the food and drug administration will still be left with inadequate authority to protect the public health from dangerous drugs . 
the fda will still have a terrible time trying to provide new labels for drugs which had been initially approved but which later had been found to be , in some cases , a threat to public health . 
this congress has an obligation to fix that . 
it is being prevented from fixing that by the rule that passed earlier today . 
secondly , i want to say that i think the bill is inadequate in a number of areas . 
i think that with respect to having a full-fledged animal identification program to help protect the public health against problems like mad cow disease , i think that the funding for that is inadequate . 
i certainly think that funding for rural sewer and water is grossly inadequate . 
there is probably more demand in my district for rural sewer and water grants than any other program in the federal budget . 
when one lives in a community in which more than 50 percent of the households are headed either by someone over 65 or by a woman who has no long work history outside of the home , that means that that community has very little tax base and very little economic ability to meet environmental standards for water and sewer , and the congress is doing precious little to help those communities . 
i think we are also very negligent with respect to rural housing , and i think that this bill is totally inadequate with respect to international food aid . 
there are a number of other concerns i have about it . 
but those are the main ones that i would focus on at this moment . 
i will vote for the bill because i think the major fault for the inadequacies of the bill lies with the committee on the budget , not with the gentleman who produced the bill . 
but i think members need to understand this bill is not adequate to meet the economic development needs of rural america . 
it is not adequate to meet the environmental needs of rural america . 
it is not adequate to meet the public health requirements of the american people . 
i wish it were . 
maybe some day it will . 
