[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 126 (Thursday, October 7, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10704-S10705]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DURBIN:
  S. 2910. A bill to establish the Food Safety Administration to 
protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring 
the safety of food intended for human consumption, improving research 
on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security 
of food from intentional contamination; to the Committee on 
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, when Americans sit down at the dinner 
table, their confidence in the safety of the food they are eating is 
based in part on the knowledge that the Federal Government is working 
hard to ensure their food is not contaminate. Right now, our food is 
the safest in the world, but there are widening gaps in our food safety 
net due to emerging threats and the fact that food safety oversight has 
evolved over time to spread over several government agencies. This 
mismatched, piecemeal approach to food safety could spell disaster if 
we do not act quickly and decisively.
  A single food safety agency with authority based on sound scientific 
principles would provide this country with the greatest hope of 
reducing foodborne illnesses and preparing for a bioterrorist attack on 
our food supply.
  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 
as many as 76 million people suffer from food poisoning each year. Of 
those individuals, approximately 325,000 will be hospitalized, and more 
than 5,000 will die. Factors such as emerging pathogens, an aging 
population at high risk for foodborne illnesses, an increasing volume 
of food imports, and people eating outside their homes more often 
underscore the need for us to take charge and shed the old bureaucratic 
shackles that have tied us to the overlapping and inefficient ad hoc 
food safety system of the past.
  I rise today to introduce the Safe Food Act of 2004. This legislation 
would create a single, independent Federal

[[Page S10705]]

food safety agency to administer all aspects of Federal food safety 
inspections, enforcement, standards-setting and research in order to 
protect public health. The components of the agencies now charged with 
protecting the food supply, primarily housed at the Food and Drug 
Administration and the Agriculture Department, would be transferred to 
this new agency.
  The new Food Safety Administrator would be responsible for the safety 
of the food supply and would carry out that charge by implementing the 
registration and recordkeeping requirements of the Bioterrorism Act of 
2002; ensuring slaughterhouses and food processing plants have 
procedures in place to prevent and reduce food contamination; regularly 
inspecting domestic food facilities, with inspection frequency based on 
risk; and centralizing the authority to detain, seize, condemn and 
recall food that is adulterated or misbranded. The Administrator would 
be charged with requiring food producers to make it possible for their 
products to be traced in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak in 
order to minimize the health impact of such an event.
  The Administrator would also have the power to examine the food 
safety practices of foreign countries and work with the states to 
enforce food safety laws, including the ability to seek various civil 
and criminal penalties for serious violations of the food safety laws. 
The Administrator would also actively oversee public education and 
research programs on foodborne illness.
  In this era of limited budgets, it is our responsibility to 
streamline the Federal food safety system. The United States simply 
cannot afford to continue operating multiple redundant systems. This is 
not about more regulation, a super agency, or increased bureaucracy. It 
is about common sense and the more effective marshaling of our existing 
resources.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important piece of 
legislation.
                                 ______