Uniformity Bill Creates Food Safety Concerns for State, Places Undue Burden on FDA, Says DeLauro

Uniformity Bill Creates Food Safety Concerns for State, Places Undue Burden on FDA, Says DeLauro

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) today said the food uniformity bill considered in the U.S. House today would create food safety concerns for states and would place an undue burden on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A letter sent to Congress by 37 Attorneys General - including Connecticut Attorney General Richard Bluementhal - says the legislation would "strip state governments of the ability to protect their residents through state laws and regulations relating to the safety of food and food packaging."

"This bill would make our food safety laws uniform: uniformly weak, uniformly toothless," said DeLauro. "It is states, not the Federal Government, that conduct the body of our food safety work. State and local agencies do 80 percent of the food inspections in the United States. They are on the front lines. They test food products and they manage food emergencies. Yet under this bill, State laws requiring warnings and labels on foods would be superseded or eliminated."

In DeLauro's home state of Connecticut, the legislature is currently considering a bill to address food safety by ensuring that grocery stores post information regarding the risks posed by mercury in fish. This legislation has been introduced by State Representatives Themis Klarides (R-Derby, CT) and Jack Hennessy (D-Bridgeport, CT). Similar legislation has already been adopted in other states, and a hearing was held on this legislation within just the last two weeks. H.R. 4167 would block this pending legislation in Connecticut, as well as preempt existing requirements in other states.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 200 state laws would be immediately affected by this bill's passage, requiring states to submit requests for waivers to the FDA. The cost to the FDA for reviewing these waivers would be $100 million. "Does this bill authorize another $100 million to FDA?" questioned DeLauro. "Of course not. This, at a time when the administration's budget proposals cut Federal food safety funding by over $450 million."

"If this Republican Congress wanted to make our food safety laws uniform, it would create a single food agency that would regulate the safety of our food, as some of us have suggested over and over again," said DeLauro. "We have 12 different agencies and 35 statutes currently in place to regulate food safety at the Federal level. If you want to be serious about this issue of food safety, let us have one single agency whose responsibility it is to make sure our food supply is safe and ensure the public health of this Nation."

DeLauro is the lead House sponsor on legislation that would create a single food agency. Dick Durbin (D-IL) is the lead Senate sponsor. Click here for more information on the legislation:

http://www.house.gov/delauro/press/2006/March/uniformity_bill_3_8_06.html