Political Quotes

“Mr. President, today Senator Tom Harkin, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and I are introducing the Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010, which is similar to the legislation we introduced in the 108th Congress. Our goal in introducing this commonsense bill is to ensure that the Food and Drug Administration properly implements and enforces existing dietary supplement laws--namely the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health Education Act, DSHEA, and the Dietary Supplement and Nonprescription Drug Consumer Protection Act of 2006. This is important to protect the 150,000,000 Americans who regularly take dietary supplements and to remove ``bad actor'' companies from the marketplace. This issue is extremely important because the laws already on the books are sufficient if the FDA has the resources and the will to fully enforce them. Indeed, previous FDA commissioners--Dr. Jane Henney, Dr. Mark McClellan, Dr. Lester Crawford and Dr. Andy von Eschenbach--have all stated as much in Senate hearings and in my meetings with them. Moreover, current FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg has assured me that she will work with me to ensure these laws are enforced. Bottom line: the FDA already has the regulatory authority it needs under current law.…”