Issue Position: Food & Drug Protection

Issue Position

John Dingell takes his responsibility as America's Watchdog very seriously, and has focused his attention on fixing our broken food and drug supply.

On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed into law the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, thereby enacting the first major food safety system overhaul in more than 70 years.

Congressman Dingell was an original author of the food safety legislation, and he worked long and hard during the bill's arduous journey through Congress to see it through to passage.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act is a giant leap forward for our food safety system. It will give the Food and Drug Administration much needed tools to oversee our food system, track down dangerous illness-causing pathogens and respond quickly to food borne illness outbreaks through mandatory recall authority and authority to detain tainted products.

What is more, the law will bring about a focus on prevention and shared responsibility between the FDA and food manufacturers. It will protect employees who uncover food safety violations. It will put to use available technology to better prevent food borne illnesses from taking hold and spreading in the first place. It will also implement safety standards for imported food, thereby ensuring that foreign food processors who want to sell to us are held to equally high standards of safe food. The Food Safety law will implement all these measures and more, thereby bringing our food safety system into the 21st century, and keeping Americans safe.

Congressman Dingell is thrilled that his hard fought battle for safer food is now a victory for the American people.

Additionally, Congressman Dingell is a leader on protecting our nation's drug supply and is currently working on legislation similar to his food legislation which will also protect Americans against unsafe drugs, both foreign (which are where the bulk of the problems arise from) and domestic. An earlier version of this legislation, the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009, provides FDA with additional new resources for increased foreign and domestic drug facility inspections and grants FDA authority to recall unsafe drugs. The legislation will also require that drug manufacturers proactively identify and mitigate risks throughout their supply chain.

Whether he is working to protect our food and drug supply, or fighting to create jobs in Michigan, John Dingell never stops fighting for you.

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