[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 18]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 25553]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            TAINTED IMPORTS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOHN BARROW

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 25, 2007

  Mr. BARROW. Madam Speaker, I rise today because I haven't been able 
to open up a newspaper in the last few months without reading about 
another product coming into this country from overseas that is tainted, 
poisonous, or dangerous in some major way.
  Tainted pet food, counterfeit alcohol, poisonous toothpaste, 
children's toys with lead paint . . . the list goes on and on.
  Frankly, I'm tired of hearing about these dangers only when it's too 
late to do anything about them without spending valuable time and 
resources to fix the problem. We need to do a better job of ensuring 
the safety of these imported products across the board.
  As a father and a consumer, I hope that in the coming weeks we'll 
devote the time necessary to figuring out how to identify these 
problems. We need to act before we read about more recalls or worse--
when someone gets physically ill because of lax regulations or 
enforcement. We have a duty to ensure that the stream of commerce isn't 
polluted.

                          ____________________