[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 23107-23108]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I am here to recognize today's 
achievement of the passage of the landmark bipartisan Food Safety 
Modernization Act out of the Senate.
  The first responsibility of government is to protect its citizens. 
Ensuring a rapid response to outbreaks of contaminated food is critical 
to maintaining public trust in our food supply. This bill will make 
necessary changes to help keep consumers safe, and I look forward to 
passage in the House and the bill being signed into law.
  This food safety legislation is going to be a tremendous benefit to 
our Nation, and to protecting our citizens from foodborne illnesses, as 
well as potential acts of terrorism aimed at our food supply. I urge 
the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, to work very closely with the 
business community in the rulemaking process to be sure that we are not 
adding additional regulations that may already be covered and regulated 
under other areas, such as the Food and Drug Cosmetic Act and the 
Bioterrorism Act.
  I want to thank my colleagues for their efforts to make this 
legislation strong, and to protect the American people while balancing 
the legitimate concerns that businesses have that do not over reach or 
over legislate in this bill. The rulemaking process must not be 
duplicative or attempt to regulate areas that already protect public 
safety in other areas of law, statute and regulation. It is my hope 
that the FDA will be practical in applying this legislation to 
manufacturers of ingredients such as food processing aids, and will 
direct their resources where the real

[[Page 23108]]

food safety dangers occur and are occurring. The use of indirect food 
additives and processing aids have not been determined to be the source 
of food borne illness outbreaks and I believe it is important that the 
FDA continue to focus its scarce resources on the key elements that 
this legislation hopes to address in the Food Safety area.

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