It's great to be here in Tacoma, and I'm particularly delighted to have the opportunity to address the National Plant Board. I'm also glad to be here with Dr. Ric Dunkle from APHIS, and with Jennifer Molen from National Association of State Departments of Agriculture.

What CBP Is
Let me tell you about this new agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which, thanks to the President and Secretary Ridge, I'm privileged to head. CBP has been up and running as part of the new Department of Homeland Security for five months, for 165 days to be precise . . . but who's counting?

Customs and Border Protection is by far the largest actual merger of personnel and functions taking place within the Department of Homeland Security. Some agencies in the new Department were transferred intact, such as the Coast Guard, TSA and the Secret Service. Other parts of the Department are start-ups, such as Science & Technology and IAIP -- that's Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection for those of you who didn't bring your Washington acronym dictionaries. But Customs and Border Protection, "CBP" -- is an actual, honest-to-goodness merger.

Because to create CBP, we have taken almost all of U.S. Customs and merged with it the agriculture quarantine inspectors from the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the immigration inspectors from the former INS, and the entire Border Patrol. The total number of employees in the Customs and Border Protection agency is 42,000. To put it another way, CBP has about one-fourth of all the personnel that make up the Department of Homeland Security. That's not surprising when you consider how important the security of our borders is to the security of our homeland.

But it's not just the size of the merger that makes the creation of CBP profound. This merger is historic, because for the first time in our country's history, all agencies of the United States Government with significant border inspection and regulatory enforcement responsibilities have been unified into one agency of our government; one agency to manage, secure, and protect our borders. One agency to protect our country, the American people, American agriculture, and our economy.

Bringing all the personnel of the federal border inspection agencies together into a single agency is a good government reform that has been advocated by seven independent studies since the Nixon Administration. I was discussing this with someone a few months after 9-11, and he said to me, "Well, if there were seven studies saying it should be done and it wasn't done, it must not have been a good idea." And I said to him, "How long have you been in Washington?"

I can assure you -- it was and is a good idea. One of the best ideas of the President's reorganization of government. But unfortunately the reorganization of our border agencies into one agency was not possible without 9-11, the worst terrorist attack anywhere in the history of the world. And it was not possible without creating a new department of government. Before 9-11, the debate was: which Department of government would the border agency be in? Which congressional committees would lose power and jurisdiction?

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Five months ago -- before March 1 of this year -- our federal inspection agencies at the ports of entry were fragmented into 3 different agencies in 3 different departments of government. This fragmentation was not just terribly inefficient; it made America more vulnerable to the threat of international terrorism.

Now, we are one agency, within one department. And, as U.S. Customs and Border Protection, we are creating, as Secretary Ridge has called it, "One Face at the Border," by establishing one agency for our nation's borders.

But in unifying the federal inspection agencies, it is critical that we perform the priority and the traditional missions of these agencies well, and that none of the missions be given short shrift.

The good news is that, as we better unify the personnel of CBP, we will be more effective, not less, in carrying out the agriculture inspection mission. And I want to explain how we will do that.

CBP's Priority Mission
But first, let me be clear: the priority mission of this new agency is homeland security. And for the federal border agency, that means our priority mission is detecting and preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering our country. That the terrorist threat continues today is evident from the terrorist attack last Tuesday in Jakarta. That attack appears to have been carried out by Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a group closely associated with Al Qaeda.

Part of our priority mission includes detecting and preventing agroterrorism and bioterrorism -- by that I mean the intentional introduction of diseases or pests that would devastate American agriculture, and the intentional contamination of imported agricultural products.

Make no mistake -- American agriculture is a potential target for terrorists. We must be prepared for -- and cannot ignore the threat of terrorists bringing some kind of agent or pathogen into the United States that could devastate American agriculture. This could be anything from anthrax, which Al Qaeda has been developing as a terrorist weapon, to Foot and Mouth Disease, to Plum Pox, to Ralstonia, any of which would seriously damage our country's agriculture industry.

Our nation's frontline inspectors must do everything they can to address the international terrorist threat. The 50 states and Puerto Rico which your organization represents, are also part of the first line of defense in protecting agriculture from terrorism. CBP, in cooperation with the USDA, will continue to work to strengthen state-federal partnerships.

CBP's Traditional Missions
In addition to its antiterrorism mission, CBP must and will carry out the traditional missions of its predecessor agencies, such as

• protecting our American agriculture interests from unintentionally introduced threats, including detecting, reporting, and preventing the introduction of harmful pests and diseases;
• seizing illegal drugs and other contraband at the U.S. border;
• apprehending people who attempt to enter the United States illegally; and
• even collecting duties, almost $24 billion worth last year.

Our traditional missions remain important, and we are fully committed to making sure we do them effectively. CBP could have been named the Bureau of Agriculture, Customs, Immigration and Border Protection, but I guess they thought that would have been too long a moniker for the new agency.

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But I'll tell you this: working with you, I am committed to making sure we maintain and improve our ability to prevent damage to our agricultural industry. You have my word on that. And as good as APHIS was at carrying out the agriculture border inspection mission, because of CBP's size and number of inspectors, we can be even better.

I recognize that threats to agriculture pose very real dangers. Citrus canker discovered in Florida in 1995 has cost over $200 million in control efforts so far. In addition to being raised in Kansas, I spent many years living in California, so I know the costs of Mediterranean and Mexican fruit fly infestation can cost over tens of millions of dollars. And every year, plant diseases, in general, cost the United States somewhere between $20 - $30 billion.

CBP and its AQI inspectors have been engaged in defending against the entry and establishment of Exotic New Castle disease and BSE (mad cow disease) which could cost the U.S. billions of dollars to eradicate and cripple our poultry and livestock industries.

Those numbers are sobering. As Commissioner of CBP, I understand the importance of our mission to protect American agriculture. And AQI inspectors -- now part of CBP -- are continuing to look for and intercept agents that threaten American agriculture.

Earlier, I said I would explain how, as a unified inspectional workforce, we will be more effective and efficient in performing our agriculture and other missions.

As we move forward with the integration of CBP, there will not just be the 2,000+ AQI inspectors and technicians knowledgeable about and devoted to the agriculture border inspections; there will be 18,000 inspectors devoted to this mission!

We are not there yet, but through basic training and cross-training, we will be. Basic training for all CBP inspectors will include training in agricultural inspection. This is part of my vision and Secretary Ridge's vision of "one face at the border," and, rest assured, it will make us more effective in performing all the traditional missions of the federal inspection agencies, especially the mission of protecting American agriculture.

But to gain these benefits -- to create a multi-functional inspection agency -- we must integrate to some degree, the inspection workforce.

It can't be that all immigration inspectors only do immigration inspection functions, and all customs inspectors only perform customs inspection functions, or all agriculture inspectors do just agriculture inspections. Over time, and with a plethora of training, many of CBP's inspectors will be multi-functional.

To achieve this integration also requires that the inspectional officers view themselves and this agency as having these important multiple missions, and that they be one agency.

In this regard, symbols are important, and that is why I have decided that there should be one uniform for the CBP inspectors, not three different uniforms.

And that is why all new CBP inspectors will be trained in the agriculture inspection functions and mission. And that is why we will be able to perform primary inspections for all purposes.

How the Transition is Going
The transition of the AQI inspectors and technicians, which occurred just five months ago, has been relatively smooth. In that regard, I want to thank Bobby Acord and Dr. Dunkle. They have been extremely helpful and have worked well with CBP's Office of Field Operations, led by Assistant Commissioner Jay Ahern and Associate Commissioner for our Agriculture Inspection Program and Policy, Mary Neal, who came over from APHIS to CBP as part of the transition.

I just want to say that one of the big reasons the transition has been so smooth is Mary Neal, whose work and counsel, as a senior CBP manager, has been invaluable.

The transition from APHIS and USDA to CBP has been facilitated by an MOU between USDA and CBP.

Despite the transition, we have maintained operational continuity, which was our first goal. That's not to say, as I've traveled around the country, there is not some angst among all inspectional personnel, including AQI inspectors. This is change and change produces anxieties, and we must deal with uncertainties and communicate clearly our vision.

AQI inspectors want to know whether they will be law enforcement officers like Customs and Immigration inspectors. Will they be trained and carry a firearm? These are important questions to be sure.

Based upon my travels and my town hall sessions around the country, including one yesterday at the Blaine Port of Entry, some agriculture inspectors would like to be cross-trained and multi-functional. On the other hand, some did not sign on to be a law enforcement officer and the last thing in the world they want to do is carry a gun. I understand that.

Whatever we do, no one is going to be required to carry a gun. No one will be required to be cross-trained to be a multi-functional inspectional officer. We will continue to need agriculture specialists, especially in secondary inspection settings.

CBP is not going to let the specialized expertise of our agriculture inspectors fall by the wayside! That expertise is essential to our success in carrying out our priority antiterrorism mission, as well as our traditional mission of protecting our agricultural interests from unintentionally introduced threats.

And we will cooperate closely with the other agencies that play an important role in protecting our nation's agriculture and food supply -- especially APHIS, as well as the FDA, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, and state agriculture agencies.

Unified Cargo Processing
As an example of how the merger of agriculture inspectors and customs inspectors in CBP is already improving the way we do business, we're establishing unified cargo processing and joint examination facilities. Because of the merger, we are introducing a single "hold/release" clearance system at the border, instead of the two separate ones that existed before March 1. This streamlines the clearance process and reduces the cost to the trade community of having multiple inspections done on the same cargo -- often at separate locations.

Agriculture Rules in Automated Targeting System
We've started incorporating agriculture into our targeting processes. When CBP receives advance manifest information, we process it through what we call ATS, our Automated Targeting System. ATS is a rules-based system, that sorts through huge quantities of information rapidly. The information run through ATS is scored, based on a set of rules, and a risk assessment is made in a few seconds.

We are now incorporating agricultural commodities into CBP's Automated Targeting System. We started doing this by developing rules for targeting material coming down from Canada that might be infected with BSE.

The ATS rule set for mad cow disease was the first rule set for an agricultural commodity within ATS. And it's a model for risk management of other imported materials that pose a risk to American agriculture.

Trade Act Proposed Regulations
The key to risk management is advance information. That's why last year I issued the 24-hour rule for oceangoing cargo. And just last month, I proposed regulations that would require advance electronic information for the other modes of transportation -- including trucks, rail, and air.

Those proposed regulations will permit more effective risk management. This is true for all cargo, including cargo that might put U.S. agriculture at risk. It's common sense: better information, received earlier in the process, helps identify imported shipments requiring additional scrutiny.

Conclusion
Let me wrap up my remarks today by telling you this: unifying all federal border inspectional resources into one agency will make us more effective and efficient in carrying out the traditional mission of protecting American agriculture. And it will make us more effective and efficient in protecting the American people and the American economy.

Thank you.

*Commissioner Bonner reserves the right to edit his written remarks during his oral presentation and to speak extemporaneously. Thus, his actual remarks, as given, may vary slightly from the written text.