[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 134 (Thursday, October 20, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2138]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY IN FOOD CONSUMPTION ACT OF 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 19, 2005

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 554) to 
     prevent legislative and regulatory functions from being 
     usurped by civil liability actions brought or continued 
     against food manufacturers, marketers, distributors, 
     advertisers, sellers, an trade associations for claims of 
     injury relating to a person's weight gain, obesity, or any 
     health condition associated with weight gain or obesity, with 
     Mrs. Miller of Michigan in the chair.

  Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Chairman, encouraging personal responsibility is 
something we all support in this institution--particularly with respect 
to rising rates of obesity. With two-thirds of premature deaths in the 
U.S. due to poor nutrition, physical inactivity and tobacco use, 
Americans do need to be more mindful of what they put in their bodies.
  But with only 12 percent of Americans eating a healthy diet and 
diabetes rates having risen 61 percent in the last decade alone, it is 
becoming increasingly clear that Congress is abdicating a 
responsibility of its own--we are failing to fashion policies that 
support Americans' efforts to adopt healthier lifestyles.
  Instead of shielding companies from litigation, we should be giving 
people the information they need to make the informed choices that 
exercise that personal responsibility. Today, Americans are eating out 
more frequently, spending about half of their food dollars at 
restaurants--a figure that has doubled since 1970. And everyone knows 
how much harder it is to eat healthily when they eat out. Little wonder 
children eat almost twice as many calories when they eat at a 
restaurant as they do when they eat at home--studies have shown that 
even trained nutritionists cannot estimate the calorie and fat content 
in a meal they do not prepare themselves.
  We need to be creative. For instance, I will be reintroducing 
legislation shortly, The Meal Education and Labeling Act, that would 
extend the kind of nutrition labeling you find on packaged foods at the 
store to include foods at fast food and other chain restaurants. It 
would require these chain restaurants to list calories, saturated plus 
trans fat and sodium on printed menus and calories on menu boards, 
giving consumers the necessary nutritional information to make healthy 
choices for themselves.
  That is the kind of balanced, innovative approach this body should be 
considering today to address obesity--that would be a real step toward 
helping encourage personal responsibility in food consumption while 
protecting industry and our Mom n' Pop restaurants. Instead, as we have 
seen countless times before, this majority has again chosen to use a 
very important public health issue to pursue a narrow and completely 
unrelated political agenda.
  Madam Chairman, we should do something about obesity in this country 
by empowering people to make informed decisions for themselves. But 
this bill is not the way to go about it.

                          ____________________