Pallone Decries GOP Cuts To FDA

Food Safety Will Be Compromised – Medical Innovation Stymied

Washington, D. C. – The steep funding cuts to the Food and Drug Administration will compromise newly-developed food safety practices and undermine the innovative research behind new medicines and devices, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. said on Thursday as the Republican-controlled House approved legislation that will drastically reduce FDA funding. Pallone is the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee and co-author of the Food Safety and Enhancement Act, which was signed into law in January of this year.

“The FDA has important new responsibilities to prevent food contamination and to promote the scientific innovations that produce new drugs and better medical devices,” said Pallone. “Recent headlines about the latest outbreak of E. coli is another reminder of how deadly serious food contamination can be. The new food safety law places an emphasis on prevention so that we are responding to illness and death less often. The defunding of the FDA is the same as deregulating because it takes away the resources needed to do the job.”

The Republicans’ FY2012 Agriculture Appropriations bill slashes the FDA by $572 million below the President’s budget and $285 below this year. Funding for food safety would be cut by $205 million from the President’s request and down by $87 million from this year.

“American families should be confident that the food they buy and put on the table won’t poison them,” said Pallone. “There are some things only government can do and food safety is one of them. There are some things that government should do and protecting the health of Americans is one of them.”

Each year, 76 million Americans become ill from unsafe food, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die.

In the past two years alone, the food industry has been seriously scarred by the poisonous spread of E.coli, salmonella and melamine in mainstay products, including spinach, eggs and peanut butter.

The FDA’s new emphasis on promoting the development of new medical technologies and products will also be seriously hampered by the cutbacks, Pallone added. The agency is currently developing the Innovation Pathway, an initiative to help promising technologies get to market.

“The FDA doesn’t just oversee the safety of drugs and medical devices, it facilitates the innovations that create new products and make them more effective and more affordable,” said Pallone. “The key to American competitiveness is innovation, which helps create new industries and more jobs. We should make the modest investments that will make that happen.”

The landmark food safety plan would create an updated registry of food facilities, require safety plans, add food inspectors, increase inspections and dramatically improve "traceability," allowing for the quick identification of the source of any contamination. It would also bring more accountability and oversight to imported foods that often originate in countries with less stringent standards.

“The bottom line is, the funding level the GOP wants to impose is inadequate,” said Pallone. “The FDA is already an under-funded agency. If we don’t give the agency the resources it needs to complete its mission, they cannot support important initiatives that saves lives and creates jobs, two valuable priorities this Congress should embrace.”

Cong. Pallone speaking on the House floor.

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