[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 118 (Monday, July 18, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S3323]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Food and Drug Administration

  Madam President, 2 weeks ago, the Center for Disease Control issued 
an alert: There was a listeria outbreak that sent nearly 2 dozen people 
in 10 States to the hospital.
  For those who may not know, listeria is the bacteria that causes 
listeriosis. It is serious. It is a life-threatening illness. In most 
cases, the infection causes fever, sometimes confusion, loss of 
balance; but in some cases, it can be deadly.
  Tragically, an expectant mother from Massachusetts who contracted it 
lost her baby. And another person in my home State of Illinois lost her 
life. Her name was Mary Billman. She was from Pesotum, IL. It is a 
small downstate community, about 15 miles south of Champaign.
  In January, she went to Florida to visit her daughter. One day, she 
decided to grab an ice cream cone. Harmless, right? As it turned out, 
no. That ice cream was contaminated. Ice cream is the most likely 
source of this listeria outbreak. Mary Billman was 79 years old. The 
listeria that she faced took her life.
  This outbreak is one example of a long list of outbreaks in America, 
which are becoming way too common. The Food and Drug Administration is 
responsible for regulating 80 percent of our Nation's food supply. 
Nearly all of the foods we buy at the supermarket are supposed to be 
guaranteed as safe by the Food and Drug Administration. So when we pick 
up a box of cereal for the kids, a bag of lettuce, a jar of peanut 
butter, a pint of ice cream, we assume it has been inspected. We assume 
it is safe.
  Here is the problem: Too often, that is not the case. The FDA is 
failing to uphold its most basic food safety responsibility: inspecting 
facilities. Over the past decade, the number of inspections it performs 
has fallen by nearly 60 percent--60-percent decline in inspections in 
the last decade. And to add insult to injury, that decline happened 
after Congress passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act--a 2011 
bill, which I offered, that instructed the FDA to increase the number 
of inspections. They did the opposite.
  If that weren't bad enough, in 2017, the HHS inspector general 
concluded that, even when the FDA did inspect facilities, the Agency 
did not always take action when it uncovered significant inspection 
violations. We know that story.
  This summer, a bacteria known as Cronobacter contaminated infant 
formula, leading to nationwide shortages. The FDA was alerted to this 
problem 4 months before it took any action--4 months. So even when the 
FDA performs an inspection and identifies a threat to public health, it 
doesn't take timely action, not even when the problem can sicken and 
kill adults, children, infants. That is hard to imagine.
  The FDA is adrift. And our most vulnerable people in America--
children, mothers, and older Americans--are at risk.
  Last week, I introduced a bill that would transfer all of FDA's food 
responsibilities to a new Agency outside the FDA that we hope will 
actually do its job. We are calling it simply the Food Safety 
Administration. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, my friend and a 
Representative from the State of Connecticut, has introduced the 
companion bill in the House. Our bill represents a clean slate for food 
safety in America. It would create a new Food Safety Administration 
that would be run by food safety experts who were focused on protecting 
the Nation's food supply.

  If I went into detail of the responsibilities of different Federal 
Agencies to inspect foods, you wouldn't believe it. If you have a 
cheese pizza, Food and Drug Administration; put pepperoni on the pizza, 
now it is the Department of Agriculture. It changes based on 
definitions that might have made sense sometime in the past, make no 
sense anymore.
  On behalf of the 15 million Americans who contract a foodborne 
illness each year and tens of thousands who are hospitalized, it is 
time to stop talking about it and do something.
  The FDA failed my constituent Mary Billman, along with 3,000 
Americans like her who lose their lives every year to foodborne 
illness. Many of these deaths are preventable, but they will keep 
happening if we don't fix our Nation's defunct food safety system.
  We say America is the wealthiest Nation in human history. We are 
blessed, we know, with one of the most abundant agriculture industries. 
And we are home to some of the best and brightest scientists in the 
world. So there is absolutely no excuse for allowing the FDA's food 
safety failures to persist. With our legislation, we can replace this 
broken system with one that will finally protect our families.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.