A 'Yea' Vote for DSHEA '03 Good For Alternative Health

[Guest guest]

Does anyone know more about this bill?

Be Well,

Misty L. Trepke

http://www..com

 

A 'Yea' Vote for DSHEA '03 Would Guarantee a Clean Bill of

Health for Nutritional Supplement Industry

 

http://healthy.net/scr/news.asp?Id=7720

 

WASHINGTON, Oct 7, 2003 (U.S. Newswire via COMTEX) -- Nutritional

supplement and vitamin users are up in arms over new legislation

proposed by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.)

and they have good reason to be upset. " The last thing Americans

need right now is legislation that would create an overbearing,

unnecessary law that would rob them of their consumer rights,

restrict their access to dietary supplements and raise their taxes

and the price of supplements, " said Beth Clay, director of Project:

FANS (Freedom of Access to Nutritional Supplements). " And that's

exactly what S.722 would do. "

 

But there is light at the end of the legislative tunnel. " If Durbin

and Clinton really want to see the industry properly regulated and

`protect the consumer,' then they will withdraw their current bill

and support the Hatch-Harkin bill (S.1538) that would do the job

right, " continued Clay. S.1538, The DSHEA Full Funding and

Implementation Act of 2003, is designed to eliminate the need for

any new regulatory bills for the industry. Instead, the Hatch-Harkin

bill would fully fund the current law of the land that provides the

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with all the tools it needs. " To

achieve the goal of properly and more effectively regulating the

supplement industry, we must pass the Hatch-Harkin bill (S.1538),

which would finally fully fund DSHEA. "

 

Despite overtures to the contrary, a lack of regulatory control is

not a problem in the nutritional supplement and vitamin industry. In

fact, the current FDA commissioner, Mark McClellan, has taken

aggressive steps toward fully implementing DSHEA. Passage of the

Hatch-Harkin funding bill would give McClellan the key component he

needs to finish the process. " The problem is not DSHEA and its not

McClellan, " Clay said. " The problem lies with lifetime bureaucrats

who seek to undermine their own commissioner for selfish purposes.

Hatch and Harkin's funding bill would rectify this problem by

providing for the full enforcement of existing law and compel an

annual reporting requirement so Congress can fulfill its oversight

responsibilities. "

 

http://www.usnewswire.com

CONTACT: Joe Giganti, 703-928-9695 or

Joe, for Project: FAN