Congress to FDA: Try again on food
safety rules
November 26, 2013, 05:04 pm
By Pete Kasperowicz
Dozens of members of Congress have
told the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) that its proposed food safety rules could force businesses around the
country to go out of business — and that it needs to try again.
"We believe the rules as
currently proposed would result in a multitude of unintended consequences that
would be severely detrimental to national, regional and local
agriculture," 75 members of the House and Senate told the FDA in a letter
released this week.
"After hearing many
reservations from our farmers and businesses, we are concerned that the rules
as currently proposed, and the heavy cost of complying with them, will force
some producers and processors to shutter their operations."
The letter, led by Sens. Roy Blunt
(R-Mo.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Reps. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), Chris
Gibson (R-N.Y.) and Annie Kuster (D-N.H.), said the FDA's proposed 1,200 pages
of rules still leave open several questions for companies. These include how
various facilities will come into compliance, and how to square the rules with
environmental standards.
"Despite your agency's
efforts to engage with stakeholders during the rulemaking process, we remain
concerned about the ambiguity surrounding many aspects of these proposed
rules," the letter said. "In order to improve the law's implementation,
we are writing to request that the FDA propose and submit second proposed rules
for public comment before issuing the final rules.
"By seeking additional input
through second proposed rules for public comment before the final rules, we
believe that producers' concerns can be addressed and unintended consequences
can be greatly mitigated."
The rules are being proposed to
implement the Food Safety Modernization Act, which President Obama signed into
law in early 2011.
The FDA describes the law as the
"most sweeping reform of our food safety laws in more than 70 years."
The law is designed to help the FDA prevent food safety problems, by giving the
agency the authority to set prevention standards in U.S.-based food processing
entities, and require entities exporting food to the United States to meet these same
standards.
The law lets the FDA order
companies to recall food, requires more inspections for entities that pose
higher risks and gives the FDA access to food safety records.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Margaret A.
Hamburg is the commissioner for the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the VP for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank).
Note: Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director
at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think
tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with
Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population
control by involving the United
States in war)
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (think tank), and the Brookings Institution (think
tank).
George
Soros is the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Donald
Kennedy was a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(think tank), and a commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Mark B. McClellan
was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a commissioner
for the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA).
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