Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions - Developing a Comprehensive Responce to Food Safety

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SEN. RICHARD BURR (R-NC): Mr. Chairman, I'll be extremely brief, because as I heard your points that you made from the Scientific Advisory Committee, I'm not sure I found it a condemnation of FDA as I did the American education system, because we're falling deficient in educating the talent that we need in the future. And as the pool of the scientific brains, power begins to be attracted by more than just the federal government, everybody runs short of what they need. So I think we're going to do as much good by making sure we fix education as we are by orchestrating something that Congress believes the FDA should or shouldn't do or creating a new agency.

Let me just implore my colleagues: just give them a chance. The secretary asked for these comments. He got the comments. I find him always to be one that acts when he's presented with information that's valuable to the agencies. I think he deserves a chance. Unfortunately, we can't point at food safety and just look outside our borders and say, "There's our problem." Our problem's been inside our borders before, and it means a collaboration between the federal government and private sector companies. That collaboration has started. We've got to see whether it can grow into a defense mechanism that truly is one that we can all be proud of, and more importantly, that we can have the trust in the system.

And I look forward to hearing the secretary.

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