THE LATEST NEWS ON THE FOOD SAFETY ACT (S.510)

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NATIONAL HEALTH FEDERATION

A NOT-FOR-PROFIT HEALTH-FREEDOM ORGANIZATION

 

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

 

 

THE U.S. SENATE WILL BE VOTING ON THE FOOD “SAFETY†BILL

 

 

By Lee Bechtel

NHF Lobbyist

 

April 20, 2010

 

 

 

 

Because of several U.S. Administration nominations that have taken

priority, the U.S. Senate, which was expected to take up U.S. Senator Dick

Durbin’

s Food Safety Act (S.510) as early as next week, will instead consider the

bill in two to three weeks. When it does, there are several issues likely

to be addressed with amendments to the bill. As readers will recall, this

bill is more trash on a stick, intended not to address any food-safety

problems but simply to expand government control over the food economy.

 

 

What’s at Stake

 

 

S.510 is nothing more than the House bill H.R.2749 in Senate clothing. It

requires registration of all food facilities, including manufacturers,

processors, packers and storage facilities. Any such facility that introduces

food into interstate commerce without being registered and having paid the

mandatory registration fee would be subject to penalties for marketing

misbranded food.

 

 

But there’s more – registered facilities must implement hazard analysis,

risk-based preventive controls, and food safety plans. For large

commercial operations and Agribusiness with their retained professional staffs

of

attorneys and accountants, these additional costs will be barely noticed, and

certainly passed on to us consumers; but for small farms and small

operations, these regulatory requirements will be oppressively burdensome, even

fatal. Just as ominously, and in typical Washington, D.C. fashion, the

proposed law would cause supplement manufacturers who are already subject to

intensive Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), to scrap their just-implemented

GMPs and implement instead another set of costly GMPs! Fortunately,

Senators Hatch and Harkin are taking action to ensure that supplement companies

are exempted.

 

 

In essence, though, this bill proposes total Federal government control

over and tracking of food production, distribution, and sales – supposedly to

ensure “food safety†but which powers in fact would be unconstitutional

and unnecessary. Under S.510/H.R.2749, the Food and Drug Administration

(FDA) would empower the government to regulate food production at all levels,

up and down the chain of production. This seems quite laughable seeing

that for some time now mainstream media headlines have reported that the FDA

is unable to keep up with food-safety regulation at any level, so, why add

to their already unattainable workload?

 

 

Then, as a kicker, the bill provides for criminal prosecution of those

producers, manufacturers, and distributors who fail to comply with the new

laws, and punitive property seizures and large fines for each offense upon

conviction. And for those who have been following Codex, you have almost

certainly not missed the fact that S.510/H.R.2749’s “science-basedâ€

approach

tracks that found in Codex food guidelines.

 

 

The Latest News on S.510

 

 

The latest from Senate staff insiders is that Senators Hatch, Harkin, and

Enzi will be offering a Manager’s Amendment to clean up details not clearly

addressed when the Senate HELP committee unanimously approved S.510 last

Fall.

 

 

In particular, they will offer clearer language on the FDA's involvement

with Codex and dietary supplements. In the original Harkin bill reported

from committee, language was included asking the FDA to report to Congress on

whether and how to harmonize foreign food-processing standards with U.S.

law, but stating that Codex does not apply to the US regulation of

supplements. The revised language directs the FDA to report to Congress on any

Codex activities related to conventional food and/or supplement standards under

consideration, before taking any regulatory action in the future. This is

almost precisely what the NHF, the Sunshine Health Freedom Foundation, and

the National Health Freedom Coalition were supporting and pushing last

Fall (see _http://www.thenhf.com/press_releases/pr_20_nov_2009.html_

(http://www.thenhf.com/press_releases/pr_20_nov_2009.html) ), even though other

groups

were oblivious to the need to do this at that time. Some have changed

their tune since then.

 

 

Recently-Claimed Victory?

 

 

In fact, recently, there was an announced “victory†concerning

supplements having been exempted from Codex language in the " Food Safety " bill,

which

sounded quite nice as consumers definitely need more victories in any

food-related legislation. Unfortunately, though, as anyone following this bill

closely would know, this was not a recently-won victory. The actual

exemption language had already been in this particular bill for some time now,

due to the efforts of several organizations and many individuals; so, sadly,

no real victory should have been claimed. To trot out an old victory and

proclaim it as one’s own would be like George Bush claiming credit for

winning World War II.

 

 

Regardless, despite this “non-recent†improvement in the statutory bill

language, the NHF still opposes passage of S.510. The Federal legislative

process is like making sausage, as everyone knows, that is, the bill at

issue gets stuffed with everyone’s favorite pork. That does not make the

bill

any better – that’s just political logrolling. And we should not stand

for it.

 

 

The Latest on S.3002

 

 

A second issue is that while the NHF and other health-freedom groups and

their memberships lobbied and were somewhat successful in getting Senator

McCain to back off of his so-called Dietary Supplement Safety Act (S.3002),

the latest is that Senator Arlen Spector (D-PA) is expected to offer a “Son

of McCain†bill amendment to S.510. The health-freedom Senators and their

staffs are working on how to prevent this, but Harry Reid and Dick Durbin

are the two in charge of the Senate schedule. To be fair and balanced, the

exact language of a Spector amendment has not been released to members or

their staff, preventing us from knowing whether it will attempt to do the

same as the original McCain bill proposed, which was to repeal the Dietary

Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), or something else of lesser

harm. The sausage is still in the making.

 

 

Take Action Now

 

 

Despite the NHF’s, and other health-freedom groups’, successful lobbying

efforts and grassroots letter writing campaign to protect the intent and

letter of the DSHEA law, the so-called Food Safety Act (S.510) is still a

threat to our health and health freedoms. To block the FDA from its goal of

harmonizing U.S. food law to international food standards, via use of the

Codex mechanisms, the NHF still opposes the intent and purposes of S.510.

The bill fundamentally only addresses conventional foods, and not

supplements; but it is still a bill that will adversely affect all of our

health,

unnecessarily raise food costs, put chains upon domestic food producers, and

increase yet again our costly, parasitic Federal bureaucracy. It must be

stopped.

 

 

Take action now by writing your Senators stating your firm opposition to

S.510. The time for registering your opinion is short, but continued action

is necessary for us to be successful. Go to

_www.thenhf.com/government_affairs/federal/s510_sample_petition.doc_

(http://www.thenhf.com/government_affairs/federal/s510_sample_petition.doc) for

a sample letter to send to your

Senator to register your opposition.

 

 

Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, and Henry Waxman have

so far been successful in their quest for a complete government takeover

of health care, despite the opposition of the vast majority of Americans,

who are not being listened to. In the current political and legislative

atmosphere, every crack in the door for the anti-supplement, pro-Federal

control and anti-individual responsibility Congressional leadership is being

used

to spend, tax, and hire an ever-growing mob of Federal bureaucrats.

 

 

Sample Letter to Your Senators - _Click Here_

(http://www.thenhf.com/government_affairs/federal/s510_sample_petition.doc)

 

 

 

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Click on this address to find your U.S. Senators: _http://www.senate.gov_

(http://www.senate.gov/)

 

 

Contact Information to E-mail Senators:

_http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm_

(http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm)

 

 

The Senate main number is (202) 224-3121

 

 

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As the oldest and best-respected health-freedom group on Capitol Hill, the

NHF continues to be the credible source of objective assessment of, and

proactive actions on, Congressional legislation and FDA matters that have

material impact upon our freedom-of-health choices and access to dietary

supplements and nutritional foods.

 

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_Click here for the permanent link to this press release, use this link to

inform others._ (http://www.thenhf.com/press_releases/pr_20_apr_2010.html)

 

 

 

 

 

National Health Federation: Established in 1955, the National Health

Federation is a consumer-education, health-freedom organization working to

protect individuals' rights to choose to consume healthy food, take supplements

and use alternative therapies without unnecessary government restrictions.

The NHF is the only such organization with recognized observer-delegate

status at Codex meetings. _www.thenhf.com_ (http://www.thenhf.com/)

 

 

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P.O. Box 688, Monrovia, CA 91017 USA ~ 1 (626) 357-2181 ~ Fax 1 (626)

303-0642

 

Website: _www.thenhf.com_ (http://www.thenhf.com/)

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