[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 43 (Monday, October 31, 1994)]
[Page 2158]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 
1994

October 25, 1994

    Today I am pleased to sign S. 784, the ``Dietary Supplement Health 
and Education Act of 1994.'' After several years of intense efforts, 
manufacturers, experts in nutrition, and legislators, acting in a 
conscientious alliance with consumers at the grassroots level, have 
moved successfully to bring common sense to the treatment of dietary 
supplements under regulation and law.
    More often than not, the Government has been their ally. And the 
private market has responded to this development with the manufacture of 
an increasing variety of safe supplements.
    But in recent years, the regulatory scheme designed to promote the 
interests of consumers and a healthful supply of good food has been used 
instead to complicate choices consumers have made to advance their 
nutritional and dietary goals. With perhaps the best of intentions 
agencies of government charged with protecting the food supply and the 
rights of consumers have paradoxically limited the information to make 
healthful choices in an area that means a great deal to over 100 million 
people.
    And so, an historic agreement was finally reached in the Congress 
this year that balances their interests with the Nation's continued 
interest in guaranteeing the quality and safety of foods and products 
available to consumers. This agreement was embodied in S. 784, 
legislation sponsored in the Senate by Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator 
Tom Harkin, in the House by Congressman Bill Richardson, and passed with 
the help of Senator Edward Kennedy, Congressman John Dingell, 
Congressman Henry Waxman, and scores of cosponsors in the House and 
Senate.
    Simply said, the legislation amends the Federal Food, Drug, and 
Cosmetic Act to establish new standards for the regulation of dietary 
supplements including vitamins, minerals, and herbal remedies.
    The passage of this legislation speaks to the determination of the 
legislators involved, and I appreciate their work. But most important, 
it speaks to the diligence with which an unofficial army of 
nutritionally conscious people worked democratically to change the laws 
in an area deeply important to them. In an era of greater consciousness 
among people about the impact of what they eat on how they live, indeed, 
how long they live, it is appropriate that we have finally reformed the 
way Government treats consumers and these supplements in a way that 
encourages good health.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,  
October 25, 1994.

Note: S. 784, approved October 25, was assigned Public Law No. 103-417. 
This statement was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
October 26.