Posted Tue, July 27, 2010
Filed under: S.T.O.P. in the News
**S.T.O.P. Executive Director, Donna Rosenbaum quoted below.**
By Lyndsey Layton
Frustration over a food safety bill that is stalled in the Senate has prompted infighting among some prominent Democrats.
Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) sent a sharply worded letter Friday to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), accusing her of holding up Senate action on a landmark food safety bill that easily passed the House on a bipartisan vote last July.
"This is the most awesomely frustrating thing I've ever undergone," Dingell said. "Seventy-six million people are sickened by bad food in this country every year, 300,000 go to the hospital and 5,000 die. And the Senate sits on this bill like a hen on an egg."
Dingell wrote the House bill, which would grant vast new authorities to the Food and Drug Administration and mark the first serious reform of food safety laws in 70 years. The measure was headed for easy passage in Senate until the spring, when Feinstein said she wanted to add language that would ban a controversial chemical, bisphenol A or BPA, from food packaging.
Feinstein's BPA proposal won applause from some public health groups but sparked immediate protest from the chemical industry, food manufacturers and major business interests, who pledged to withdraw their support for the bill if it included a ban on BPA...
...After years of maintaining that BPA is safe, the FDA this year expressed "some concern" about the chemical and has joined several federal health agencies in a major research push to determine whether it poses human health risks.
Meanwhile, a handful of localities and states -- including Feinstein's state of California -- have banned BPA from bottles, sippy cups and other infant and toddler products.
In his letter to Feinstein, Dingell said he shared her concerns about possible BPA health effects but believes her insistence on a BPA ban was hurting the bill's chance for passage.
"I implore you to not allow the perfect be the enemy of the good," Dingell wrote. "Time is running out. Our choices are becoming increasingly clear -- we can either find middle ground, or we can become obstinate in our views and fail to meet any of our goals. It would be calamitous if a bill to protect American consumers from unsafe food cannot become law this year because of controversy over a single point."
One food safety group, Safe Tables Our Priority, is urging its California members to ask Feinstein to drop her efforts around BPA in order to move the bill forward. "We are just really upset about this," said Donna Rosenbaum, the group's executive director. "We've been working so hard for so many years and we're so close."
This article can be found in full at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/20/AR2010072004163.html
Posted Mon, July 12, 2010
Filed under: S.T.O.P. in the News
**S.T.O.P. members Rylee and Lauren are featured in the two ads run by the coalition mentioned below.**
A year after House Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly approved legislation to improve food safety, public health advocates are growing frustrated that the Senate has yet to take up the bill.
A coalition of food safety groups tried to turn up the pressure last week on Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), running newspaper ads in the lawmakers' two states featuring constituents who fell seriously ill from food poisoning. The ads urged Reid and McConnell to move the bill to the Senate floor and pass it.
"Time is short -- there are not a lot of legislative days on the calendar and we're seeing [food] recalls every week," said Erik Olson with the food and consumer product safety programs at Pew Health Group. "There is obviously a lot of interest in making sure folks know this bill has broad public support and that there is really no reason not to move this. It would show that Washington can get something done."
Pew Charitable Trusts released results of a poll conducted in Nevada, where Reid is facing a tough reelection campaign, finding that 71 percent of voters think the Senate should pass the bill.
On Wednesday, President Obama said in a statement that he supported passage of the Senate bill and that it would give the government the tools it needs to ensure food safety.
The bill, which would be the first major change to food safety laws in 70 years, is designed to give the Food and Drug Administration vast new regulatory authority over food production. It places greater responsibility on manufacturers and farmers to produce food free from contamination -- a departure from the country's reactive tradition, which has relied on government inspectors to catch tainted food after the fact.
The legislation follows a wave of food-borne illnesses over the past four years, involving products as varied as spinach and cookie dough, which has shaken consumer confidence and made the issue a priority for many lawmakers and the White House. Food illnesses affect one in four Americans and kill 5,000 each year, according to government statistics. Tainted food has cost the food industry billions of dollars in recalls, lost sales and legal expenses.
This article continues at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/10/AR2010071002677.html?hpid=topnews
Posted Fri, July 09, 2010
Filed under: S.T.O.P. in the News
**S.T.O.P. is a member of the Make Our Food Safe Coalition.**
What do you call a bill that's been languishing in the Senate so long it might just die there? The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.
So Make Our Food Safe, a coalition of consumer groups advocating for the bill, is trying to create a little home town pressure on the one guy who can schedule a floor vote: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada.
They released a survey today showing 82 percent of Nevadans support the food safety bill, whether they vote Democrat or Republican.
The survey by Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies shows 73 percent of Nevada voters say Congress should pass legislation to strengthen food safety standards and protect consumers from contaminated foods, and 84 percent say this is the government's responsibility.
Not coincidentally, Reid just happens to be in the re-election race of his life.
The bipartisan bill, passed by the House last year, would address some of the FDA's longstanding funding and staffing woes when it comes to oversight of the food supply.
But like old socks, the longer the bill sits out there waiting for Senate action, the more likely it attracts lint (i.e. amendments, objections) and gets shoved to the back of the drawer (i.e. stalled for lack of time to deal with them.)
This article continues at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/07/08/128381592/nevadans-want-food-safety-bill-passed-but-reid-has-yet-to-schedule-it
Posted Wed, June 30, 2010
Filed under: S.T.O.P. in the News
**Melissa and Thomas are featured in this TV news story about their advocacy trip to DC with S.T.O.P., Thomas’ illness and the necessity for the FDA Modernization Act to pass now.**
Watch the clip here: http://arkansasmatters.com/fulltext?nxd_id=326445
Copyright © 2009 S.T.O.P.