Schumer Offers Groundbreaking Legislation Creating New Commerce Dept. Post To Coordinate Food And Product Safety Oversight

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Schumer Offers Groundbreaking Legislation Creating New Commerce Dept. Post To Coordinate Food And Product Safety Oversight

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) unveiled legislation Tuesday establishing a new office within the Department of Commerce to coordinate the oversight activities of the patchwork of agencies that regulate foods and products sold in the United States.

"The current hodgepodge system for inspecting products sold in this country has too many holes to adequately protect consumers," Schumer said. "The Bush administration's approach on consumer safety puts too many chefs in the kitchen, with none of them in charge. Right now, consumers are not getting the information they need about dangerous and defective food and consumer products. This proposal installs one official at the top who can say ‘the buck stops here' on everything sold in the United States."

Schumer's proposal comes on the heels of a summer's worth of consumer scares—including multiple recalls of lead-tainted children's toys from China. The breaches exposed gaping holes in the nation's efforts to ensure consumer safety, which is hobbled in part by confusing overlaps in agency jurisdiction and the lack of uniform standards for product quality and inspection regularity.

Subtle differences in food products dictate which agency regulates a product as well as the frequency with which inspections occur. For instance, the agency responsible for ensuring the safety of a packaged ham and cheese sandwich depends on how the sandwich is presented. The U.S. Department of Agriculture inspects manufacturers of packaged open-face meat or poultry sandwiches (e.g., those with one slice of bread), but the Food and Drug Administration inspects manufacturers of packaged closed-face meat or poultry sandwiches (e.g., those with two slices of bread).

The new position would bring order to the current regulatory setup. The official would head a council, also formed under Schumer's legislation, that includes representatives from the various agencies with food and product safety oversight responsibilities.

Schumer's bill, numbered S. 2256, also obligates the official to undertake certain tasks:

o Create a "one-stop" online database with information on all food and product recalls, advisories, alerts, seizures, defect determinations, and import bans. When searching for food and product safety information, consumers must first figure out which agency has jurisdiction over the item. The answer is not necessarily intuitive or easy to determine. For example, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has jurisdiction over children's cribs, but not children's car seats. Car seats are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

o Implement a national recall alert system for disseminating as-it-happens information on recalls to consumers and businesses, including retailers, the media, and medical professionals. The system could include email alerts to consumers such as that administered by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for products under its jurisdiction. The system could also include email and fax alerts to retailers, national and local news media, school districts, hospitals, libraries, banks and post offices.

o Improve identification and prevention of unsafe imports. Too many unsafe food and product imports are reaching the shores of the United States. Negotiations with our trading partners for U.S. authorization to test, audit, and inspect food and consumer products before they are shipped to the United States are a priority. Development of risk assessment models that would better identify and prevent the importation of unsafe products also is a priority.

o Promote the development of food tracing technology to provide consumers with access to the supply chain history of a consumer product. Independent projects and private-sector companies are researching technology that could deliver information about the life cycle of a food product directly to the consumer. If this technology can be mainstreamed, a consumer could potentially punch a few numbers into a cell phone or PDA in the store and find out the whole backstory of a fruit or coffee or wine.

The legislation is the latest effort by Schumer to improve the government's oversight of food and consumer products sold in the United States. He is also a co-sponsor of comprehensive legislation authored by Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) that would expand the authority of the CPSC, increase fines, and improve transparency and accountability. That bill was due to be approved by the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday.

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