[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 118 (Friday, July 31, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2154-E2155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FOOD SAFETY ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2009

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. RUSH D. HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 30, 2009

  Mr. HOLT. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the Food Safety 
Enhancement Act (H.R. 2749), and to commend the Committees on 
Agriculture and Energy and Commerce for their hard work in crafting the 
bill.
  According to a 2005 study by the Centers for Disease Control, each 
year 76 million people (25 percent of the population) become sick, 
325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die from foodborne illnesses in the 
United States. In recent years, the United States has experienced many 
incidents of food contamination, caused by biological and man-made 
toxins. For example, in 2000, various brands of taco shells were found 
to be contaminated with genetically modified corn meant only for animal 
feed. In the fall of 2006, spinach contaminated with E. coli bacteria 
resulted in more than 200 confirmed illnesses and at least three 
deaths. In 2007, various products imported from China were found to 
contain wheat gluten contaminated with the industrial chemical 
melamine, which killed more than a dozen house pets. And recently, 
people across the country were infected with Salmonella bacteria from 
eating peanut products from a processing plant in Georgia. Even 
contaminated cookie dough has ended up in the food supply.
  Therefore I commend my colleagues Chairman Emeritus Dingell, Chairman 
Waxman, Mr. Pallone and Mr. Stupak for their firm and comprehensive 
response to this torrent of food contamination incidents, and for 
crafting the bill before us today. In addition, I want to acknowledge 
my colleague Ms. DeLauro for her own substantial efforts to improve 
food safety, and her contributions to this bill. It would make many 
important improvements to our food safety regulations, including 
creating an up-to-date registry of all food facilities serving American 
consumers, requiring foreign and domestic food facilities to have 
safety plans in place to identify and mitigate hazards, and require 
high-risk food facilities to be inspected every 12 months, and low-risk 
facilities to be inspected every 18 months. It also requires the Food 
and Drug Administration, FDA, to develop a system which would expedite 
import processing for importers who agree to adhere to enhanced safety 
and security guidelines, and expands FDA trace-back capabilities in the 
event of a foodborne illness.
  In particular, I want to thank the Committees for responding to many 
of the concerns raised by the National Sustainable Agriculture 
Coalition and constituents from my district that the bill would 
negatively impact small, family-owned, and organic farms. For example, 
the bill before us today provides an exemption from traceability and 
registration for direct farmer-to-consumer marketing, an exemption for 
food, facilities and farms that are already regulated by the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, and an exemption for grain and hay farmers 
from full-scale electronic traceability

[[Page E2155]]

requirements. In all these cases the regulations would be unnecessary 
and wasteful.
  However, a number of the concerns they raised have not been 
addressed, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in both 
Chambers to ensure that those matters are addressed as the bill moves 
through the process. Most importantly, it will be critical to assure 
that none of the new safety standards weaken the standards under the 
National Organic Program. In addition, it will be important that we 
facilitate and enhance the role of conservation and sustainability 
practices to address food safety issues. And we must ensure that the 
fee structure in the bill does not disproportionately impact small 
agricultural producers.
  I thank my colleagues again for their leadership and prompt action on 
this matter, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and to work 
to fine-tune it as it moves through the legislative process.

                          ____________________