February 6, 2004

WASHINGTON – Congressmen Tom Petri, Mark Green and Paul Ryan sent a letter today to the Right Honorable Margaret Beckett, the British Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs requesting access to a mad cow tissue sample for a Watertown company. The following is a statement from Rep. Petri, who also comments on the latest unemployment figures:

"TSE Scan, a company in Watertown, has developed a rapid test for detecting chronic wasting disease in deer. The test should also work for mad cow disease, but the company needs a sample of diseased tissue to validate their method.

"The British have the most experience with mad cow disease, so I've joined with Representatives Mark Green and Paul Ryan to contact the British government in order to get access to a tissue sample.

"Obviously, to protect our consumers we've simply got to have a rapid, accurate and affordable test to guarantee the safety of our beef before it reaches the supermarket. We've also got to have jobs and advanced technology in Wisconsin, so it's basically a no-brainer that we have to do whatever we can to give Wisconsin's businesses and Wisconsin's employers a leg up.

"And speaking of jobs, I'm very pleased about the latest job figures. 112,000 jobs were added to the economy last month, and the jobless rate has dropped to 5.6 percent nationwide. You know, 10 years ago most economists thought that we couldn't get unemployment below about 5.5 percent without kicking up an inflationary spiral - but the prosperity of the 1990s has caused us to expect more. So 5.6 percent unemployment just isn't good enough. But it's progress.

"In January, employers added new jobs at a pace not seen in three years. Unfortunately, however, the job gains were in retailing and construction companies, but not in manufacturing. We've simply got to get more jobs in manufacturing, but there are hopeful signs there as well, so I'm cautiously optimistic."