Tom Harkin: “I comment on the Hatch-Harkin-Durbin amendment No. 2090 adopted by the Senate yesterday. This action taken by the Senate…”

“I comment on the Hatch-Harkin-Durbin amendment No. 2090 adopted by the Senate yesterday. This action taken by the Senate is an important step in our continuing efforts to assure that Americans have access to high quality dietary supplements to maintain and improve their health. Over 158 million Americans take dietary supplements to maintain and improve their health. From vitamin C to calcium to glucosamine to beta carotene, there is a full range of healthful supplements that are part of the daily lives of people all over this country. Consumer expenditures on these products reached a reported $17.1 billion in 2000, double the amount spent just 6 years earlier. And, according to a recent report by the Food and Drug Administration, the use of dietary supplements is likely to grow due to factors such as the aging of the baby-boom generation, increased interest in self-sufficiency, and advances in science that are uncovering new relationships between diet and disease. In response to efforts by the Food and Drug Administration to inappropriately cut off consumers' access to some supplements, in 1994, the House and Senate unanimously approved the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, DSHEA. I was pleased to have played a role in crafting this important legislation.”