Food Safety Enhancement Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. LUCAS. I yield myself 5 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, I truly regret that I must rise in opposition to this legislation, H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009.

Let me begin by saying that I believe our Nation has the safest food supply in the world. I also believe that we must continually examine our food production and regulatory system and look for ways to improve food safety. However, the bill before us today does little to accomplish the goal of enhancing food safety. One glaring example is the fact that the authors of the bill did not require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration--``require'' being the operative phrase--to spend one additional penny on the inspection of food.

The bill before us today is the product of a flawed process. This is just another example of Federal power without the benefit of careful consideration. It is what we have come to expect from the majority leadership of the 111th Congress. We could point to the stimulus package, cap-and-trade, and soon the health care bill as examples of a blatant disregard for the legislative process and for the American people, for whom we work. As of last night, no one had seen a copy of this bill.

It is tragic that despite a clear jurisdictional claim, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee did not demand that the bill be referred, conduct hearings on its provisions and work at the committee's will to make improvements.

But this is not just a matter of jurisdiction between two committees. The real losers today are farmers, ranchers, and, yes, consumers. During a recent committee hearing on the general topic of food safety, not a single producer witness would support this bill in its current form. This is a stunning failure to fulfill our legislative responsibility.

One provision of particular concern would mandate that the Food and Drug Administration set on-farm production performance standards. For the first time, we would have the Federal Government prescribing how our farmers grow crops. Farming, the growing of crops and the raising of livestock, is one of the first organized activities pursued by man. We have been doing it for a very long time, and we have been doing it without the FDA.

New language to the bill would exclude row crop producers from FDA regulatory authority over growing and harvesting crops. Language was also approved that would relieve livestock producers from some of the burdens of the law. Although these are needed changes, they do not go far enough to make the bill acceptable.

This bill still leaves our Nation's fruit and vegetable producers subject to objectionable regulatory burdens.

There are other problems in the bill as well. New registration authorities for food processing facilities create what amounts to a Federal license to be in the food business. Hundreds of millions of dollars in associated fees represented by a new tax on food production, along with regulatory burdens, will increase the cost of food for consumers, increasingly forcing food production out of this country, unfortunately.

New quarantine authorities for FDA will undermine animal and plant inspection control programs that have been in place at USDA for decades.

The vast majority of these provisions, along with new penalties, record-keeping requirements, traceability, labeling, country-of-origin labeling, will do absolutely nothing to prevent food-borne disease outbreaks, but will do plenty to keep the Federal bureaucracy busy. These issues can be worked out through the normal legislative process, but only if there is a process.

Mr. Speaker, let me return to where I started. We have the safest food supply in the world. Anyone following current events knows that our food production system faces ongoing food safety challenges, and I stand ready to work with my colleagues to address these challenges. But this is not the way to create law.

We should not suspend the rules to pass this bill. Our Nation's farmers, ranchers and consumers deserve better, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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