Senator Durbin Cotinues Fight for Passage of Food Safety Bill
Yesterday, by 57 yeas to 27 nays, the Senate agreed to a motion to proceed to consideration of S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.
We appreciate all of the work Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois has done to get this bill passed. Yesterday, he had this to say regarding the bill:
Madam President, I would like to say a few words on this legislation because it is something I have worked on for many years. I can't thank Senator Harkin and Senator Enzi and others enough for their hard work in bringing this issue to this moment in time. Several things have been stated during the course of the debate which I would like to address. Most of them were stated by my friend from Oklahoma, Senator Coburn. At this point he is the only Senator holding up this bill from consideration, one Senator.
At this point 89 percent of the American people support food safety reform to make our food safer and to have more inspections of imported food so our children and family members don't get sick; 89 percent support it. The bill has substantial bipartisan support. Twenty Republican and Democratic Senators are committed to this bill. Seventy-four Senators, almost three-fourths of the Senate, voted to move forward on this bill, a strong bipartisan roll call. The House passed a companion bill with the support of 54 Republicans. We know it is a bipartisan issue. This should not be a partisan fight.
Senator Coburn objected to giving the Federal Government the authority to recall a dangerous food product. Most people believe if there is a dangerous food product in stores across America, the Federal Government sends out a notice, and it is brought in. That is not the case. The Federal Government does not have the legal authority to recall any food products. All it can do is publicize that the products are dangerous and hope that grocers and retailers and manufacturers will take them off the shelves. That is it. That is the existing state of law. We give the government that authority.
Senator Coburn said it is not necessary. He claims not one company has ever refused to recall contaminated food. He is just wrong. There are many instances of companies that just flatout refuse to recall their food or delay a recall, and many people get sick and die. That is a fact.
Last year Westco Fruit and Nut Company flatout refused FDA's request to recall contaminated peanut products. A few years ago, GAO released a report entitled ``Actions Needed by FDA to Ensure Companies Carry Out Recalls'' which highlighted six other companies that flatout refused to recall contaminated food when they were told it was dangerous. Even the Bush administration realized how important this was and formally requested mandatory recall authority in the 2007 food protection plan.
Senator Coburn has his facts wrong when he claims the FDA does not need the mandatory recall authority.
Senator Coburn also claims our bill does not address the real problem in our Nation's food safety system.
Once again, he is mistaken. The National Academy of Sciences disagrees. In June, the National Academy released a report entitled ``Enhancing Food Safety, the Role of the FDA.'' The report contained seven critical recommendations for improving food safety. This is not a partisan group. Every single one of the key recommendations from that group is addressed in our bill, including increasing inspections and making them risk related, giving FDA mandatory recall authority, improving registration of food facilities, and giving the FDA the authority to ban contaminated imports. Our bill fills all of the critical gaps in the FDA's food safety authority that have been identified by the National Academy of Sciences.
For Senator Coburn to say it is unnecessary is to ignore science and fact and, I guess, the reality that if we are going to make food safer, we need to do our job better. That is why all the key consumer protection and public health groups support this bill--all of them.
He thinks this bill is not good for business. He says it hurts their profits and their productivity. He is just wrong. The number and diversity of the industry and business groups that support the bill speaks for itself. Listen to the groups that support the food safety bill and tell me they are acting against their best business interests: the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Beverage Association, the American Frozen Food Institute, the Food Marketing Institute, the International Dairy Foods Association, National Restaurant Association, Snack Food Association, National Coffee Association, National Milk Producers Federation, National Confectioners Association, Organic Trade Association, the American Feed Industry Association.
If Senator Coburn is right, every one of these associations' leadership should be removed tomorrow because, under his analysis, they have decided to support a bill that hurts their business. They know better. Safe food is good business. Think about what it costs these companies when they have to recall a product, when it damages their reputation and all the things they will go through to try to clean up their act.
Senator Coburn says there are 10 or 20 deaths per year caused by foodborne illness. The Senator is just wrong. He uses this number to support his assertion that there are not enough victims to justify a bill. Here are the facts. According to the Center for Disease Control, there are not 10 or 20 deaths per year, there are 5,000 deaths in America every single year caused by foodborne illness--5,000. Senator Reid can tell some stories about his State which was hit particularly hard by food illness.
Moreover, every year 76 million Americans contract a foodborne illness; 325,000 are hospitalized. A few weeks ago I told you about one of the victims, a young man named Richard Chatfield from Owasso, OK. At age 15, he was on a camping trip and was diagnosed with E. coli. For 8 years, he suffered pain, migraine headaches, dry heaves, and high blood pressure, and after going on dialysis, kidney failure. When we were last debating this bill, Richard was lying in the hospital and his mother Christine had rushed to be by his side. That hospital turned out to be the scene of Richard's death.
On Monday, October 18, while we were still holding up the food safety bill, Richard Chatfield died from foodborne illness. The complications from an E. coli infection he got 8 years ago proved to be too much for him.
When I hear Senator Coburn on the Senate floor saying there are not enough people dying for us to go to work here, he is just plain wrong. Richard Chatfield of his State is dramatic evidence of that fact.
As we stand here today, one Senator is blocking a bill to protect millions of Americans. Moms and dads across America making dinner tonight, if they happen to have missed the channel they were looking for and ended up on C-SPAN and are following this debate, we are talking about an issue that goes right into their refrigerator and stove and kitchen as to whether the food they are putting on the table is safe for their kids. One Senator from Oklahoma says it is not a big enough problem. It is. It is a problem that is a life-and-death issue.
As attorneys who represent people sickened by foodborne outbreaks, we know how important it is to get this legislation passed.
Yesterday, we filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of the family of Nellie Napier.
