Henry Waxman: “I am now proud to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), who is the chairman of the…”

“I am now proud to yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), who is the chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee that deals with the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Agency. Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Madam Chairman, every time this body considers a bill on how we regulate the food of this country it is designed not to strengthen existing law, but to weaken it, and this despite the fact that we face many threats to our food supply: avian flu, BSE, and bioterrorism. Today, we debate the National Uniformity for Food Act. This bill would make our food safety laws uniform: uniformly weak, uniformly toothless. Right now, it is States, not the Federal Government, that conduct the body of our food safety work. State and local agencies do 80 percent of the food inspections in the United States. They are on the front lines. They test food products and they manage food emergencies. Yet under this bill, State laws requiring warnings and labels on foods would be superceded or eliminated. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that 200 State laws would be immediately affected by this bill's passage, requiring States to submit requests for waivers to the FDA. The cost to the FDA for reviewing these waivers would be $100 million. Does this bill authorize another $100 million to FDA? Of course not.…”