Kennedy calls for better inspection of foreign seafood sold in the US: “The shrimp was radioactive”

Watch Kennedy's comments here.

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) delivered the following remarks on the U.S. Senate floor:

"Mr. President, this is a photograph of the alien from the movie 'Alien.' This is what you could end up looking like if you eat some of the raw frozen shrimp being sent to the U.S. by other countries. Now, let me tell you what I am talking about.

"In late August, the FDA found that raw frozen shrimp from Indonesia was being sold in Walmart-specifically, in Walmart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. It was being sold under the Walmart label called the Great Value label.

"If you eat it, how could you end up looking like the alien in 'Alien'? Because the shrimp was radioactive. I kid you not. It had a radioactive isotope in it called cesium-137. It will kill you. Even if it doesn't turn you into the alien if you eat this stuff, I guarantee you will grow an extra ear. That was bad enough. Obviously, the FDA issued a recall.

"A few days later, it happened again. The FDA and NOAA, which I will talk about in a second, found that there were 26,460 packages of shrimp cocktail and 18,000 bags of frozen cooked shrimp being sold, once again, at Walmart and at Kroger's throughout the U.S., containing the same radioactive isotope.

"How could this happen in America? This is unconscionable.

"I will tell you how, because that shrimp-that shrimp from other countries, which don't abide by the same rules that we abide by in America, which, if you eat it, may turn you into the alien or, at a minimum, will cause you to grow an extra ear-is not being inspected. It is supposed to be. It is supposed to be inspected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric [Administration]-we call it NOAA. It's part of the Department of Commerce.

"And, yes, they are inspecting some of it, about 1 percent; on a good day, 2 percent. The United Kingdom inspects 50 percent of the farmed seafood coming into its nation. Even China does a better job than the United States of America. This is unconscionable. There is no excuse for it. There is no excuse for it.

"This shrimp-and I am not just picking on Indonesia; it is other countries. This shrimp is grown in conditions that you can't possibly imagine. Dirty water. They shoot the shrimp full of antibiotics. I confess, I didn't know they were shooting them full of this radioactive isotope. But the normal antibiotics that they put in these foreign shrimp are bad enough that if you eat enough of the foreign shrimp, you become resistant to certain bacteria here in America because the antibiotics don't work on it anymore because you have eaten so many shrimp that contain the antibiotics.

"This is unconscionable, and it should not be happening in the United States of America.

"Now, I am biased. I believe in homegrown Louisiana shrimp, fresh out of the Gulf, not radioactive. But I understand that some stores prefer to buy foreign shrimp because it is cheaper. Now we know why: The damn stuff is radioactive.

"NOAA needs to do a better job of inspecting the shrimp that is sold from other countries that don't abide by the same standards we do to the consumers of the United States of America."

Watch Kennedy's speech here.