Hearing of the House Subcommittee on Health of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce - H.R. 3610, The Food and Drug Import Saftey Act
Interview
Hearing of the House Subcommittee on Health of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce - H.R. 3610, The Food and Drug Import Saftey Act
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REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D-IL): I thank you, Chairman Pallone, for holding today's hearing on the Food and Drug Safety Act. I thank Chairman Dingell for this important legislation which makes crucial strides in strengthening FDA's ability to monitor the safety of our nation's food and drug imports.
During the past year, consumer confidence in our nation's food safety framework has been shaken time and time again, particularly by tainted imports. Cases of poisoned toothpaste, antibiotic-laden seafood and toxic pet food demonstrate how we rely on the food safety practices of foreign countries and producers and illustrates the importance of the legislation before us today.
More than $75 billion worth of food and agricultural products are imported into the United States annually, which is nearly double the value of just over a decade ago before NAFTA and WTO took effect in the mid-'90s. In 2005 nearly 15 percent of all U.S. consumption was imported. Despite the increase in imports, FDA estimates that in 2007 it will conduct border inspections on only a paltry .6 percent of the food it regulates, down from 8 percent just a decade ago. USDA, while not a model of perfection, has at least managed to inspect 11 percent of the beef, poultry and other products it regulates in 2007.
Chairman Dingell's bill incorporates several crucial and common- sense solutions to the present food safety crisis. The bill would provide FDA with the additional resources and authority it needs to certify and inspect food safety procedures of foreign countries and facilities as well as the products entering our ports. It institutes country-of-origin labeling, something that 92 percent of Americans support, within six months of the bill's enactment into law.
I'm particularly pleased that it gives the FDA the authority to issue mandatory product recalls and halts import of products until a foreign entity has resolved the problem. These measures will prevent -- will help prevent future food safety outbreaks and help restore the shaken consumer confidence.
While I strongly support the intent of this bill and the vast majority of the solutions it proposes, there are some provisions that I believe need more discussion.
Sections 3 and 4 require the Health and Human Services secretary to assess and collect user fees to fund inspections, lab testing and research on testing techniques for food and drug imports. I fully support the emphasis on proactive safety inspections and testing. However, if we're forced to rely on user fees, I'm concerned that we make it clear that those companies that pay those fees do not have undue influence on agency policies and practices. The subcommittee has worked to address this problem in the FDA's drug approval process and I hope -- in fact, I'm sure that we can prevent similar problems here.
I'm also concerned with provisions in Section 5 that would restrict the number of eligible ports from the current number of more than 300 to just 13, excluding some of our nation's busiest ports such as Chicago, which I represent part of, and Houston and Boston. While the secretary has the authority to waive this requirement, I believe we need to create a food safety system that enables busy ports like Chicago to continue receiving food imports.
I'm interested in hearing more about the consequences of this drastic reduction on areas with no direct port access as well as how we can ensure transparent and accountable decision-making process with regard to this waiver authority.
There's much work to be done to restore consumer confidence in our nation's food supply and to build the kind of food safety framework that will make the high-profile cases of this year a thing of the past.
And I look forward to hearing from all of the witnesses. With that, I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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