[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 129 (Thursday, September 23, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7404-S7405]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              FOOD SAFETY

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, as I listened to my friend from 
Wyoming, I was thinking, ``Ditto for the food safety bill.'' This is a 
bill for which there is vast bipartisan support. There always has been, 
from the moment it was introduced with four Democratic Senators, 
including myself, and four Republican Senators. Of course, the bill has 
been led by Senator Durbin from the very beginning, and Senator Harkin 
has played a key role. This has been a bipartisan bill. Given that we 
have only seen more foodborne illness outbreaks over the last few 
months, there is no reason we should not pass this bill. I rise today 
to urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  I have stood here many times in support of the food safety bill. Part 
of this is because we had a very tragic thing happen in our State. We 
had three people die after the peanut butter that came out of Georgia, 
that peanut plant in Georgia. Three of the people who died were from 
Minnesota. One of them was named Shirley Almer. Her family expected her 
home for Christmas in 2008. She was a strong-spirited 72-year-old 
grandmother from Perham, MN. She had survived 2 bouts of cancer but she 
was actually recovering and doing quite well in recovery with a brief 
stay in a nursing home.
  But she didn't make it home for Christmas that year. She died on 
December 21, 2008. It wasn't the cancer that killed her. She had 
battled that cancer. In fact, it was a little piece of peanut butter on 
her toast that 72-year-old grandmother ate. She didn't know it, but the 
peanut butter was contaminated with deadly salmonella bacteria. Shirley 
Almer and two other Minnesotans are among the 9 deaths officially 
related to peanut products, which also sickened nearly 700 people 
nationwide, many of them children. Shirley's son Jeff has stepped 
forward as a strong voice calling for reform of our food safety system.
  Whether it is jalapeno peppers or peanut butter or, most recently, 
eggs, these outbreaks of foodborne illness and nationwide recalls of 
contaminated food highlight the need to better protect our Nation's 
food supply.
  The good news is we know how to protect our Nation's food supply and 
we have legislation sitting on the table, literally sitting on the 
table, that could go a long way toward doing that. Sadly, that 
legislation has been stalled in the Senate since last November and now, 
as far as I understand, our colleague from Oklahoma has some concerns 
and at this late hour it is still stalled.
  We know we can not afford any more delays. As one of the lead 
sponsors of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, I believe the Senate 
has every reason to pass this legislation. It is comprehensive. It 
covers everything from ensuring a safe food supply at the front end to 
ensuring a rapid response if tainted food gets into the supply chain. 
As I mentioned, it is bipartisan. You know what else about this 
legislation, which doesn't always happen with food safety consumer 
protection legislation? This has the support not only of consumer 
groups, not only of health groups, it has the support of many in the 
food industry including SUPERVALU, a very large food chain including 
Cub Foods, located in Minnesota.
  I did an event back in Minnesota with the CEO of SUPERVALU a few 
weeks ago on this issue. Why do our businesses care? Of course they 
care because they want to have safe food for the consumers. They also 
care because this is hurting their bottom line, when there are these 
scares that encompass food and people are scared. We were standing 
there and a woman went by and said, I don't know if I want to buy eggs 
and the CEO said, you know what, not one egg was recalled from our huge 
food stores all over the country--Cub Foods, SUPERVALU--not one egg, 
but consumers don't always know that. But when you have a bad actor, 
when you have one company, one factory as you had in Georgia, it can 
ruin it for everyone--consumers, obviously tragic for them, tragic 
injuries, but it also hurts the bottom line for these businesses that 
have not done anything wrong.
  Hormel, the maker of Spam, was standing with us at SUPERVALU that 
day, talking about how important it was. General Mills, Schwans support 
this bill. We have widespread support in our food industry because they 
don't want to see another person get sick from tainted food.
  Finally, we all know this legislation addresses a very serious issue. 
According to the Centers for Disease Control, foodborne disease causes 
about 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths 
in the United States each year. Yet, for every foodborne illness case 
that is reported, it is estimated that as many as 40 more illnesses are 
not reported or confirmed by a lab because people simply don't know why 
they got sick. The annual costs of medical care, lost productivity, and 
premature deaths due to foodborne illnesses is estimated to be $44 
billion.
  There is a lot at stake here, a lot at stake for human life, and 
there is a lot at stake for the economy. As you know, 2 years ago, 
hundreds of people across the country suddenly got sick with 
salmonella. Once it hit Minnesota, and once people died in Minnesota, 
sadly, it took only a few days before the University of Minnesota and 
the Minnesota Health Department, our ``food detectives'' as they are 
called, or ``team diarrhea''--which my staff didn't want me to say on 
the Senate floor but that is what we call them--worked together and 
they were able to solve this. How do they do it? Simple detective work. 
They simply called the families and homes of people who had gotten 
sick, people who had gotten very sick, they talked to their loved ones: 
Where did they eat? When did they eat? What did they eat?
  They literally solved it in a matter of days. One State solved the 
jalapeno pepper problem--Minnesota. One state solved the Georgia peanut 
problem. That was Minnesota. That is why there is something to be 
learned from the model we used in our State.

[[Page S7405]]

  That is why I included it in the Food Safety Modernization Act and 
why it is supported by so many people and so many grocery stores across 
the country as well as consumer groups, the bill I introduced with 
Senator Chambliss of Georgia, the Food Safety Rapid Response Act. 
Building on successful efforts at detecting and investigating foodborne 
illnesses, this will strengthen the ability of the Federal and State 
and local officials to quickly investigate and respond to foodborne 
illness outbreaks.
  I am proud to have Senator Chambliss, from the State of Georgia, that 
had to have this experience. When it was finally discovered where this 
came from, it was from one company, one bad actor in their State. He 
was willing to come with me on this bill because we said enough is 
enough. We have to put prevention in there, which is in this bill, to 
stop these things from ever happening. But if it does happen, you want 
to solve it as quickly as possible so you don't get more people getting 
sick and dying.
  What this part of the bill does, the part Senator Chambliss and I 
introduced, it directs the CDC to enhance the Nation's foodborne 
surveillance systems by improving collection, analysis, reporting, and 
usefulness of data on foodborne illness.
  This includes better sharing of information among Federal, State, and 
local agencies, as well as with the food industry and the public. It 
directs the Centers for Disease Control to work with State-level 
agencies to improve foodborne illness surveillance.
  Finally, the legislation establishes food safety centers of 
excellence. The goal is to set up these food safety centers at select 
public health departments and higher education institutions around the 
country. It takes the Minnesota example across the country, first with 
five centers--not to directly tell each State exactly what to do but to 
be an example of best practices for a region of the country.
  Not many bills that come before Congress enjoy such a wide range of 
support from some important stakeholders. Not only do consumers 
recognize the critical need for this major bill, but the legislation 
has received support from major brand-name food companies. They know 
what is at stake. Their reputation and their bottom line depends on the 
trust of their customers, the trust that everything possible is being 
done to make sure their food is safe.
  As a former prosecutor like yourself, Mr. President, I have always 
believed the first responsibility of government is to protect its 
citizens. In this most basic duty, our government failed Shirley Almer 
and many others who have been harmed by recent recalls. We owe it to 
them and all Americans to fix what is broken in our food safety system.
  We can do a lot better with our food safety system. That is why we 
need to pass this legislation now.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Udall of New Mexico.) The Senator from 
Ohio is recognized.

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