Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff and Health and Human Services Secretary Leavitt at a Press Gaggle on Import Safety

SECRETARY LEAVITT:  Americans enjoy the most safe and highest quality food supply in the world.  Our challenge is to keep it that way.  The world is changing.  We're seeing dramatically more imports coming into our country.  It's important that our system change in ways that can accommodate that additional challenge.

The President has compiled a working group among members of his Cabinet and others within the government, within a 60-day period, to bring back to him some recommendations on a long-term strategic approach to assuring the safety of American products.

Secretary Chertoff and I are among the members of that working group.  The President has asked that I chair it.  We now have teams working within each of the 12 departments and agencies within the government.  They will, within a very short period of time, make recommendations, and we're going to roll that into a strategic report.  We'll give it to the President, and we anticipate that for 60 days after that, we'll then provide an implementation plan.

But the Secretary and I are here today to answer questions in relation to our progress.  Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY CHERTOFF:  Very quickly, just so you know, we're obviously not waiting for the report to be done to be taking action at our borders to make sure that we are checking what comes in and preventing unsafe food or unsafe products from coming into the United States.  We've been doing this for years, working with the FDA, Customs and Border Protection, USDA and other regulatory authorities. 

We screen all of the products coming into the U.S., meaning that we get information about them, and then based on that we make judgments about what we inspect.  We have in recent months turned away meat products, for example, that are under a ban because of foot-in-mouth disease in the United Kingdom.  We've turned away adulterated toothpaste, or toothpaste that's been misbranded.  And we're going to continue to work as part of this strategy on refining and enhancing our capability to keep unsafe products out of the United States.

QUESTION:  Secretary Leavitt, the most recent example of unsafe products was a toy recall of millions and millions of toys.  There are lots of parents out there who are wondering about the toys that weren't recalled that are in their homes right now with their kids playing with them.  Is there anything you can say to assure them about the safety of what comes in, what the toys are today?

SECRETARY LEAVITT:  Well, that circumstance was well responded to by the head of the Consumer Product Safety Council, where that is handled in our government.  That is a very good example of ways that we need to improve to assure that there are unsafe products that not only are we inspecting to find them, but that we are building safety and quality into the product.

With the massive amount of commerce that comes in and out of the United States, inspecting every piece may not be possible; in fact, it clearly won't be possible.  But what we can do is begin to understand where the goods are produced and inspect along the process. 

This isn't toys, but I was at a lettuce manufacturing or processing plant in Texas.  The operator said, our motto is, "know your grower."  We want to know where that lettuce is planted; I want to know the kind of quality water that was on it; I want to know the fertilizer that was put on it; I want to know when it was picked; I want to know what happened when it was picked and how was it shipped.  That's what I mean by building quality in.

We need to say to the rest of the world, if you intend to produce products for American consumers, you need to meet the standards of quality and safety that we expect -- not your standards, our standards.  And then the United States needs to have a process in which we can assure that the quality standards are being met.

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, you've been traveling around looking at various facets of the system here.  You must have some preliminary thoughts on where there are gaps, where there are not sufficient people, where systems don't work or perhaps jurisdictions have to be changed.  Can you give us your preliminary read on what you're finding here?

SECRETARY LEAVITT:  Well, it's clear to me that the vastness of it will make it impossible for us to inspect everything.  If we did, it would slow the American economy down to a halt.  So we have to be smart about the way we do this.  An inspector at one of the borders said to me, in many cases we're looking for the needle in the haystack; our first job is to shrink the haystack so that we know what to look for, and that makes us more efficient.  

Now, the question that we need to ask ourselves is, do we have sufficient technology, do we have sufficient personnel to assure that we are able to meet the demands?  And that's part of what we're looking at in this discussion.

QUESTION:  And have you reached any conclusions yourself about that?

SECRETARY LEAVITT:  Well, again, we have a lot of people looking at this, and it would be premature for me to say I've reached this conclusion or that conclusion.  But that's one of the things that we are looking for.  We're not just asking about today.  We're asking for the long term.

There's an old saying in the hockey world, you want to skate where the puck's going.  We know that within 10 years, we may see as much as three times the amount of imports there are today.  So we need to build a system that will accommodate the larger capacity, not just today but in the future.

QUESTION:  Mr. Secretary, you said you're conducting a conversation with China over our standards.  And I'm just curious about how they responded to those -- to that.

SECRETARY LEAVITT:  The Chinese, among many other countries, want to have access to our market.  We've made clear that if you want to have products produced for American consumers, you need to meet the standards of quality that we have -- not your standards, our standards.  And then we need to have a means of being able to assure that those who are shipping to the United States are meeting those, and it needs to be a transparent system.

So we're having that conversation with China and with a number of other countries right now to assure that we have a means by which Americans can be protected.

QUESTION:  There have been many critics who have said there's nowhere near enough money being put into inspection; we don't have enough people.  There's been talk about closing down some of the laboratories.  They say we need a massive infusion here of money and people to get this job done right.  What do you say to that?

SECRETARY LEAVITT:  That's part of what we're looking at:  Do we need to have more?  And we'll have recommendations to the President about that.

I do want to emphasize that while we need to have adequate inspectors and we need to have a process that highlights those that are potentially dangerous, we have to build quality into the product so that we know at every step along the way that quality, in fact, is being built and used.  Otherwise, when you get this vast amount of commerce coming into the United States, if we don't open the right carton, we don't know.  And so building it in is the key to keeping safe.

QUESTION:  I'll throw in another one.  The diabetes test kits that were reported today that were out there were detected actually by private industry, not the government.  Any comment on that case, how it was uncovered, and what should be done about that?

SECRETARY LEAVITT:  I don't have the details on that.  But I think the point that you make is that it isn't just government that's inspecting.  There are many people in the supply chain who have an incentive to assure that products are safe.  And we need to coordinate not only among government agencies, but with those who ship and those who produce and those receive and those who sell.

QUESTION:  Secretary Chertoff, just one last question, I'm sorry.  Concerning Mr. Padilla's conviction yesterday, do you think that will serve as a deterrent to other homegrown cell -- terrorist cells, perhaps?

SECRETARY CHERTOFF:  Well, one thing it's going to do is it's going to incapacitate him and his two co-defendants who were also convicted.  They're going to be in jail instead of out on the street.

I don't know that deterrence really works with people who are would-be terrorists, but what does work is expanding our intelligence capabilities and having tools that enable us to put somebody in a secure setting when we do find a terrorist so they're not out and about and in a position to carry out acts of terror.

I would say this is a very good day for the United States -- or yesterday was a very good day for the United States and for the American justice system.  It's a reminder that the President should have all of the tools that can possibly legally be made available to him in order to protect this country against people who are very dangerous.

Last revised: March 13, 2008