Protecting America's food supply
Americans are being forced to play a game of Russian roulette with the food they eat.
We’ve all heard stories about widespread food poisoning — with sometimes deadly consequences.
Yet legislation that could transform the nation’s food-safety laws continues to languish in the Senate, while American families are forced to hope for the best and fear the worst.
This was supposed to be the week the Senate took up a monumental food-safety bill, making the most fundamental changes in our food-safety laws since 1938.
I know there are many lawmakers, on both sides of the aisle, who care deeply about this. I am appealing to them to move this bill. President Barack Obama has said he wants something done. Now is the time to make it happen.
Already this year, we accomplished a legislative pursuit that has challenged generations of leaders, delivering on the promise of access to health care for all Americans. But that was one part of the solution for our broken health care system. Reform also requires an increased emphasis on prevention.
The next big health challenge is addressing food safety — particularly preventing food-borne illness. We passed a bipartisan bill in the House that does just this.
It is easy to lose sight of the importance of addressing food safety without a major outbreak in the news. And it will be easier to overlook the importance of the issue as we wade deeper into partisan divisions over financial regulatory reform and Supreme Court matters.
But we delay action on this bill at the peril of the American people. We cannot wait for another outbreak before we act.
The facts about the impact of unsafe foods have not changed. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food-borne diseases cause approximately 76 million illnesses, as well as 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths in the United States every year.