FDA enforcement authorities bill

Executive Summary

Rep. Dingell (D-Mich.) responds to food industry opposition to the legislation by asking FDA Commissioner Kessler July 26 to make agency files available to his Oversight Subcommittee staff so that they can update "the status of the FDA's inspections of food production, importation and distribution." Fifteen food-related trade associations have written to Congress opposing HR 2597, bringing to 38 the number of associations for FDA-regulated industries that have expressed opposition to the bill ("The Pink Sheet" June 24, T&G-1). Dingell noted that a 1989 subcommittee staff report documents "FDA's limited inspectional resources, deficiencies in existing legislation and an antiquated computer system" for industry monitoring.