madam chairman , pictured on this chart is an asian long-horned beetle . 
this is one of the many pests that are under the responsibility of aphis , the animal and plant health inspection service . 
this is an insect that bores its way into trees , primarily in illinois , in the northeast , and kills them . 
there is no way to stop this pest except by cutting down the tree . 
and we in new york and in new jersey and illinois have had to chop down a lot of them . 
what my amendment will do is to increase the funding for aphis , to bring it up to the level that the bush administration proposed in their preliminary budget . 
it is estimated that the amendment that we are offering today with the gentleman from michigan ( mr. mccotter ) xz4002600 and my colleagues from new york and others around the country , by increasing by $ 19 million , we will wind up preventing more than $ 700 billion worth of damage to trees throughout the country . 
this is not just a problem that will be solved for the asian long-horned beetle . 
if you have the emerald ash borer in indiana , ohio or michigan , or in the pacific coast , or suffer from sudden oak death in california or oregon , or are dealing with the glassy-winged sharpshooter in california , or of course boll weevils throughout the south , all of these are pests which are having a dramatic impact on our economy , or is having a budget cut in this round to an unacceptable level . 
first let me say of the chairman and the ranking member , they are doing a lot with less and less . 
the staffs of both the minority and majority side should be commended for taking a very small allocation and trying to make it as best they can . 
however , what my amendment will do is it will take a program that essentially does the computing and data processing part of the agriculture department and moves it into dealing with these pests . 
obviously , i would like not to have to cut any part of the agriculture department , but this is an offset that works . 
we found , when this house weighed into this debate in the past and increased funding through an amendment on the floor , we wound up having a substantial positive impact . 
when the asian long-horn beetle was first kind of discovered in 1999 here in the east coast , there were 2 , 500 trees that were affected . 
it was down to just 66 in 2004 . 
unfortunately , that downward trend has recently been reversed . 
this , the house bill that we are considering today , allocates $ 22 million less for aphis than president bush had requested . 
the nature conservancy , which studies the impact of pests like the asian long-horn beetles , says that we really need a $ 44 million increase . 
we are not going to be able to get a $ 44 million increase in this bill . 
what the amendment does is try to reach a point that we at least start to win the battle again , start to lead to a reduction in the amount of trees that are infected , not only by the asian long-horn beetle , but by the emerald ash borer and others that i mentioned . 
there is hardly a state in the union that has not found its trees impacted by these pernicious insects . 
aphis has been an effective way to reverse the course . 
a combination of research and remediation has proven that the dollars spent on these things turn out to be extraordinarily helpful . 
whether it is the cactus moth or the gypsy moth in washington-oregon , i would urge my colleagues in virtually every state of the union to look to see if you have an insect that represents a pest that is impacting not only the trees in the abstract sense of our environment , but also our economy . 
there is hardly a state in the union that would not benefit from this amendment . 
as i said , i believe that the ranking member , the gentlewoman from connecticut ( ms. delauro ) xz4001030 , and the chairman , the gentleman from texas ( mr. bonilla ) xz4000370 , deserve great credit for how they have done more with less . 
we are making a minor change to increase the funding for aphis by $ 19 million to allow even more work . 
the gentleman from michigan ( mr. mccotter ) xz4002600 , who is sponsoring this amendment with some of us in the new york and new jersey delegation , is detained . 
he is expected on the floor shortly , but he represents , as so many other members do , a bipartisan effort to make sure that insects like this are vanquished once and for all . 
