Tim Walberg: “I express appreciation to my colleague who offers this amendment; yet I rise in opposition because, in fact, this…”

“I express appreciation to my colleague who offers this amendment; yet I rise in opposition because, in fact, this amendment undermines a key provision of the Common Sense--I will repeat that--the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, which is a bipartisan bill that makes necessary changes to the FDA's menu labeling regulations. If, indeed, as has been stated, the FDA is willing to work and be flexible, we wouldn't need this legislation. It is because they have shown no real flexibility that this legislation has been offered. Currently, FDA's menu labeling rules remain costly, ineffective, and overly burdensome for more than 70,000 restaurants. That is no small number, Mr. Chairman. For places like pizza shops, where the vast majority of orders are online--and, yes, they are providing a service, in most cases, online for their customers--they are voluntarily doing it and really doing it in a quality way. It is nearly impossible for a single menu board to be designed in a way that can provide accurate calorie counts for literally millions of combinations. The FDA sadly ignores the realities of a diverse market and the technological advances, innovation, creativity, et cetera, by applying the same menu standard as a one-size-fits-all, top-down approach, and that is the reality that is out there with the FDA.…”