Bart Stupak: “As I wrap up my 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, this is a good bill in which to wrap up a career. I first…”

“As I wrap up my 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, this is a good bill in which to wrap up a career. I first introduced food safety legislation along with Mr. Dingell and Mr. Pallone and now-Senator Brownback in 1997. For 14 years we have been fighting to try to update our Nation's food safety laws. And then as chair of Oversight and Investigations, we have held over 13 hearings on food-borne illnesses from spinach, peanut butter, jalapenos, and most recently tainted eggs. Why was all this necessary? As has been noted, our food laws have not been updated since 1938. And we know more and more of our foods are coming from different sources and different countries. But this year and each year approximately 77 million Americans become ill because of food-borne illnesses, 325,000 are hospitalized, and up to 5,000 Americans will die, some of our most vulnerable Americans, such as children and senior citizens, those whose immune systems have been weakened or are not fully developed. We must act now to pass this food safety bill.”