Political Quotes

“I rise today, Mr. President, to speak in support of food safety legislation. Food safety is a topic that affects every single American. Food safety is something we all care about because we all eat. American consumers spend more than $1 trillion on food each year, and each year there are an estimated 76 million cases of foodborne illness, including at least 5,000 deaths a year in our country. That is why it is time that this important piece of bipartisan legislation be brought to the floor. We have waited far too long to do our job and to complete our work on the issue. We have waited too long to pass a bill that will save lives. In November, we unanimously voted S. 510, the bipartisan FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, out of the HELP Committee--unanimously. At the time, we were talking about the recent outbreaks of E. coli in spinach and salmonella in peppers and peanut butter. But months have passed and we have still not brought the bill to the floor. In the months since we have passed the bill out of committee, we have already had more outbreaks of salmonella--from black and red peppers in 44 States and frozen tuna in 6 States. Seven states have been affected by raw milk outbreaks, including my home State of Minnesota. Eighteen states have been affected by salmonella in frozen dinners. And this summer, we have seen one of the worst outbreaks in recent history.…”