House GOP Seeks Big Cuts To FDA, Food Safety Inspectors

• A House GOP proposal is seeking $285 million in cuts to the Food and Drug Administration, an 11 percent reduction from FY 2011, just as the agency moves to implement an ambitious new food safety law, reports Food Safety News. The proposal would also reduce the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service budget by $35 million. Proponents claim the reduced funding level will not prevent "critical meat, poultry and egg product inspection and testing activities, and supports an expansion of a poultry inspection pilot project that will lead to improving food safety."

• How to decipher Dodd-Frank's alphabet soup: Bloomberg Government provides this helpful glossary on everything from "camels" ("Rating given to banks based on capital adequacy, asset quality, management practices, earnings performance, liquidity and sensitivity to market risk") to "zombie banks" ("A financial institution with negative net worth that continues to operate through federal assistance").

• AT&T spent $6.8 million in the first quarter of 2011, hiring 71 experts to push through their merger with T-Mobile.

• The nuclear industry was dealt a major setback on Friday when its regulator announced that it will delay the approval of the Westinghouse AP1000, the most popular reactor design pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Greg Jaczko, the chairman of the NRC, said the agency has more questions about the design's shield building and the "peak accident pressures expected within containment."

• In the wake of last year's 'phantom recall' scandal, when Johnson & Johnson hired contractors to yank drugs such as Motrin off of store shelves rather than conduct a proper recall, the company's executives were hauled before Congress and agreed to a consent decree with the Food and Drug Administration. Now, House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa is upset that the FDA has failed to take "promised and necessary corrective actions" at its San Juan office, where the scandal unfolded, Pharmalot reports.

• The commission set up by Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett (R) to generate proposals for the responsible development of the Marcellus Shale, the giant underground rock formation that contains untapped natural gas reserves, is made up of many industry representatives and campaign donors, according to this interactive Pittsburgh Post-Gazette graphic.

• The Environmental Protection Agency is one of the most-lobbied agencies, a striking fact considering its small size relative to behemoths like the Pentagon (via Sunlight Foundation).

Comments

[Red45]

01:54 PM on 06/25/2011

Wow. Big pharma has no lack of cajones to bribe and coerce Army dcotors, nor do those Army doctors have the integrity to say "no, thanks." Purely disgusting. Where does the corruption stop?

[trvcampbe]

07:17 PM on 05/28/2011

How many lawsuits have you seen in the past 10 years for Food and Drugs approved by them, that harmed sombody..You see it almost everyday..

[trvcampbe]

07:15 PM on 05/28/2011

They approve poisons for consumption..ASPARTAME..Just to name one..How many can you name?

[Calvin Chautine]

01:30 PM on 05/25/2011

Yep it takes 35 people to put lables on a can saying " Dont drink this paint"

[Cerigrafu]

02:08 PM on 05/25/2011

And yet it only takes one good teacher to identify "lables" as a spelling error and "Dont" as a punctuation error. Go figure.

[deefrseely]

01:09 PM on 05/25/2011

Pathetic libs need govt to be their parents- tell them what to eat, how to eat, what is good for them and what is not- all while the govt is killing them - sheep following to slaughter- JUST READ THE SIDE EFFECTS OF THOSE FDA APPROVED DRUGS - fools

[Cerigrafu]

02:07 PM on 05/25/2011

What, those FDA-approved drugs approved by an FDA appointed by Republican Presidents?

[terra33]

10:10 AM on 05/25/2011

The FDA has gotten too big as with every other government agency. Let me also state the case that they ask for a 23% increase in spending for 2011 so cutting 11% is still leaving an increase of 13%. Also to some on here that think the FDA does a fantastic job let me say most food poisons and drug problems are not caught by the FDA but by comsumers. Also I might point out that private business has the consumers protection in mind as much as, or more then the FDA. If they put out a bad product they loose all around and go out of business. FDA regulation actually prevents life saving drugs from coming on the market for years costing many lives. Before 1967 you could opt out and do studies with people willing to try any drug that was not FDA approved giving more and faster innovation to the industry. Today the government regulation fees for new drug studies and approvals cost over $300 million leaving small bio companies and even big companies to scrap many drug ideas. Unless they see the drug as a block buster the cost of regulations is to expensive. Yes we need some rules but the FDA is so big it now cost money and lives with it bureaucratic regulations.

[JDSept]

12:19 PM on 05/25/2011

The food industry being so big, most food products hit the marketplace before tainted food is discovered. When discovered, it isn't your grocery store that traces it back to the source but the FDA. Without the FDA, tainted products would not be removed from the marketplace but rather kept being sold. Most do not know which food got them sick, it takes outside the system to find a common source. So many food products coming from outside the country makes it even more important. Few drugs hit the market place anymore that end up being bad. It wasn't that far back that many were found to be a risk. Drugs for life saving situations when nothing available perhaps can be tried. Most drugs are not in that group but rather for less threatening problems. Most new drugs brought to the marketplace are replacements for drugs already there. With so many old and new drugs coming on line few actually are ever taken off, so the FDA is doing ok. New ones every day. I have had so many changes in my diabetes meds, colesterol and blood pressure meds in the last 15years. FDA approval is a good door stopper against lawsuits towards drug corps. Drug companies go out of business? What drug company won't look for new things, they fear the cost? Nobody spends money looking for an aids drug or cancer drugs? The high cost with no return so far hasn't stop looking. A successful product generates high returns.

[deke4]

07:05 AM on 05/26/2011

You wrote, "Also I might point out that private business has the consumers protection in mind as much as, or more then the FDA". You know little of what you speak. Did you ever hear of a medication called Thalidomine (sp)? It was a pill that was given to pregnant women that caused babies to be malformed. Europeans banned the manufacture, distribution and sale of this medication several years before the FDA banned it. American drug companies, who you say "has the consumers protection in mind" fought against that banning for several years after Europeans banned it. They were still being sold to pregnant women during that time. Another case in point, There was a medication called Carter's Little Liver Pills that was supposed to help people with liver problems. It took 14 years for the FDA to get the Carter Company to remove the word Liver from the pill's name. You see Carter's Little Liver Pills had nothing to do with helping people with liver problems.
What did you say? "Also I might point out that private business has the consumers protection in mind as much as, or more then the FDA"?

[Cyclone]

10:30 AM on 05/28/2011

It's hard to have a cogent discussion without facts. Most of the comments here are clearly based on ideology. I doubt if you will get much push back because facts are very, very hard to fight.

[Rexter]

10:09 AM on 05/25/2011

Departments within the federal bureaucracy have so grown so fat there's much trimming that can be done without any loss in whatsoever in the services they provide. There may be cases where the services are no longer needed.

It has long been held that each state can provide better and cheaper services at the state level and that the federal departments be collapsed to the state level thus shrinking the huge federal monstrosity back to a more manageable size (and budget). An added benefit is that the residents of each state can decide what it is they want to provide and they have a shorter and much closer direct link to their reps in the state houses around the country. At the end of the transition you would have voters actually having a direct say at the state, county, even town level. That is how it is supposed to work, the people have a say.

This thing in Washington is out-of-control and impenetrable. One way to get that control is to get rid of it altogether and push it down into more manageable state-sized pieces. It may be the only way we as voters will ever be heard as no one in Washington is listening to us now. We can take their power and their pocketbook away - that is the key.

[onlyonecandor]

10:03 AM on 05/25/2011

What we need is to radically reform the FDA. (Fraud and Drug Administration)

[mbrahms26]

09:21 AM on 05/25/2011

I agree with the GOP. This nation was founded on the principles of free enterprise. Let the marketplace decide what consumers want. If a company produces products that causes food poisoning and people get sick and die, that company will be rejected by consumers and go out of business. The government has no business getting involved. We need to get rid of all regualtion of business and get back to foundation of freedom. After all, it was excessive regulation that caused the financial collapse in 2008! The FDA must go, along with the Federal Reserve.

[daradams]

09:53 AM on 05/25/2011

Thank you and FANNED

[Jon David]

11:27 AM on 05/25/2011

What a great way to regulate if people die product bad ,people get sick well take youre chances. If there are no deths or illness we have a winner, can I hire you to be my taste tester.

[jdwlor]

08:54 AM on 05/25/2011

Why is so hard to see that the rightwing wingnuts are not worried about joe shmoo that has to work for a living,but are so concerned about big buisiness .Has anyone stoped think that every time they cut a goverment program they in turn give that program to the private sector,but the money it takes to run the program still gets paid for by the the good old American tax payer,and then the money is transfered to the rich instead of creating jobs.Cut FDA and let private sector be the ones to look out for the food saftey,this is a joke if it were not for the FDA and other goverment programs the private sector would still be using anything they want to in food prosessing.Wake up people these peole are going to screw the Ameican .

[deefrseely]

08:52 AM on 05/25/2011

http://4brevard.com/choice/international-test-scores.htm---look what else is on the socialization agenda

[Cerigrafu]

02:18 PM on 05/25/2011

Wow. Deep stuff.

[OldTulsan]

08:48 AM on 05/25/2011

The source of unwanted drugs is our own waste water treatment plants...

http://www.epa.gov/ppcp/faq.html
Frequent Questions | Pharmaceut­ical and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) | US EPA

"...Sewage systems are not equipped for PPCP removal. Currently, there are no municipal sewage treatment plants that are engineered specifical­ly for PPCP removal or for other unregulate­d contaminan­ts. Effective removal of PPCPs from treatment plants varies based on the type of chemical and on the individual sewage treatment facilities­..."

[deefrseely]

08:46 AM on 05/25/2011

MODERATOR WON'T POST MY SCHOOL LINK?

[Jon David]

11:31 AM on 05/25/2011

Maybe its off topic where the f--ck do you get the idea this article was about education

[Cerigrafu]

02:19 PM on 05/25/2011

If you can't post it correctly yourself, don't blame others.

[deefrseely]

08:46 AM on 05/25/2011

http://4brevard.com/choice/international-test-scores.htm - Clinton had this man removed- your school system

[donny3666]

08:42 AM on 05/25/2011

ALMOST ALL TAINTED FOOD IS RESULTANT FROM POOR STORAGE HABITS IN THE HOME.
THINK OF ALL THE PEOPLE THAT YOU HAVE EVER KNOWN TO HAVE SUFFERED FROM TAINTED FOOD AND THINK ABOUT HOW IT HAPPENED.

[daradams]

09:54 AM on 05/25/2011

Excellent point.

[Chris Judge]

05:39 PM on 05/25/2011

I guess because you said it in CAPS it must be true. Is this why you guys believe everything you hear on Fox?

Let me show you how it's done:

Most food poisoning incidents arise from eating food at restaurants.

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss4901a1.htm#tab12