"Due to the massive Republican tax cut that was enacted in May, the bill received an unrealistically low allocation by the House leadership, leaving key programs under-funded, including Amtrak.  If Amtrak is forced to eliminate service to stay afloat, Arkansas will be one of the first areas to go. 

"We all know of the positive benefits of solid infrastructure – it lays the groundwork toward economic opportunity.  In areas like Arkansas, this is crucial to our growth and progress. 

"That’s why, as an alternative to the tax cut this spring, I offered an amendment to spend $1 billion in every congressional district in the country to build or improve infrastructure.  For every billion dollars spent on roads, 42,000 new jobs are created.  Instead of accepting my amendment, which would have resulted in 18 million new jobs, Republicans opted for the tax cut.  And now, funding for our roads, bridges, and our railways is being cut to pay for it. 

"This is not the way to ensure that our country will continue to move forward and prosper.  If we are to truly stimulate our economy and provide more jobs and economic opportunities for our working families, an investment in our infrastructure is our only option."

WASHINGTON, DC – Fourth District Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) announced on Thursday that the US Department of Agriculture has awarded $178,714 to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff for a research project comparing domestic catfish and Vietnamese basa. 

“This project is critical in helping our local catfish farmers compete with Vietnamese imports,” Ross said.  “Before my provision in the Farm Bill prohibited it, Vietnamese importers would pass off basa and tra fillets as catfish, when they are not even the same species.  That practice hurt our local farmers tremendously.  This study will prove once and for all that the quality of product coming into our country is no match for what is homegrown right here in Arkansas.”

The two and a half year project will be done in cooperation with Mississippi State University.  Researchers at the two universities will compare domestic catfish with Vietnamese basa fillets to define differences in taste, color, texture, and consistency, and use the results to see how the quality differences affect consumers.  UAPB will also build an equilibrium model to see the effects of imports on the US industry, specifically the catfish industry in Chicot County.

In July, the International Trade Commission (ITC) sided with domestic catfish producers in the antidumping petition filed against Vietnam, saying that Vietnamese imports caused injury to the domestic catfish industry. 

The dumping investigation comes after a June 28, 2002 antidumping petition filed by the Catfish Farmers of America.  Ross wrote a letter of support for that petition, and also voted for the Disapproving Most Favored Nation Status for Vietnam (H.J.Res 101) Resolution in protest of Vietnam flooding U.S. markets with frozen fillets at prices that hurt Arkansas catfish farmers.