Date: 2013-10-07
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Or maybe you havent heard from the Democratic Governor of Kentucky. Governor Beshear. who says that right now 7.000 are already enrolled in the Affordable Care Act. He is saying that he has a report that says that if this Affordable Care Act works. hell have 17.000 more jobs. $15 billion in the economy. Lets stop this foolishness with ObamaCare. Its working. Lets get back to work and pass a clean CR. Too many people are hurting. Enough is enough. We need to do what is right for America. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak on H.J. Res. 77. a piecemeal "miniCR." which woefully underfunds the Food and Drug Administration. FDA. Mr. Speaker. this bill would be unnecessary if only the House majority would allow a vote on the clean Continuing Resolution. passed by the Senate. The House would easily pass the measure and the President will sign it. as he reaffirmed today. H.J. Res. 77 is the latest attempt by the House Republicans to extricate themselves from the mess they created by shutting down the government. But they should have learned by now that it would not work. It is inefficient. unfair. and costly. The shutdown needlessly disrupts the lives of Americans who provide benefits and services and those who depend upon them. These reckless miniCRs will have the effect. intended or not. of sowing division when unity is needed. It is not surprising. therefore. that responsible leaders of organizations that would benefit from these miniCRs are united in opposing this piecemeal approach to appropriating. Veterans groups opposed the Republican miniCR for veterans affairs. Similarly. leading research and consumer protection organizations oppose the FDA miniCR before us. For example. the Center for Science in the Public Interest. CSPI. opposes H.J. Res. 77. Although the organization is a health advocacy nonprofit that promotes food safety. the CSPI does not support the piecemeal approach by government that would make funding the FDA a partisan issue because "the irresponsible shutting down of government and particularly public health agencies like FDA and Center for Disease Control places families at risk from food borne diseases. But opening FDA alone would not solve the problem. Food safety is a joint governmental effort involving 13 different agencies often working collaboratively?" The FDA is an essential federal agency with the lifesaving mission of protecting all Americans from unsafe drugs. devices. biologics. and food. For example in Texas. three men were arrested and a fourth is being sought by the FBI in connection with what investigators say was a $1.5million Texasbased scheme to illegally market and sell stem cell treatments to patients with terminal diseases. "Protecting the public from unproven and potentially dangerous drug and medical procedures is very important." said Kenneth Magidson. U.S. attorney for the Houstonbased southern district of Texas. "This office will continue to prosecute violations involving threats to the public health." "This indictment demonstrates the commitment of the FDA to protect the American public from the harms inherent in being exposed to unapproved new drugs." said Patrick J. Holland. special agent in charge of the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations. according to the statement. Due to the shutdown. the FDA is now unable to continue to aggressively pursue perpetrators of such acts and ensure that they are punished to the full extent of the law. It is important that the FDA is funded as it plays a vital role in protecting consumers from contaminated and misbranded food. But it is even more important that the entire government be reopened to serve all the needs of the American people. Due to the shutdown. the FDA will have to cease most of its foodsafety operations. That includes "routine establishment inspections. some compliance and enforcement activities. monitoring of imports. notification programs (e.g.. food contact substances. infant formula). and the majority of the laboratory research necessary to inform public health decisionmaking." The U.S. Department of Agricultures Food Safety Inspection Service will continue manning every meat facility with fulltime inspectors. even as many government programs are halted. But the FDA also oversees the safety of the vast majority of the countrys food industry. According to a memo released by the Department of Heath Human Services. the bulk of FDA food inspectors have been deemed nonessential. so few. if any. food facilities will be inspected until the shutdown is over. This past December. the FDA shut down a nut processor in New Mexico after records showed that the facility was shipping products infected with salmonella. This sort of monitoring and enforcement could become much harder because of the shutdown. In fiscal 2011. the FDA coordinated or conducted inspections of about 20.000 food facilities for compliance with safety regulations. The number of past inspections suggests FDA officials normally inspect about 8o facilities per business day. So. for every day the government doesnt work. approximately 80 food facilities will go without federal inspections. If the shutdown lasts until October 17. 960 facilities may go without U.S. inspections. A spokesman from the FDA contacted The Huffington Post on Wednesday to note that a portion of these inspections would be conducted by the agencys partners in state agriculture and public health departments. But he couldnt say how big a portion. or whether the FDA would continue. during the shutdown. to pay state agencies their normal fee for inspections conducted on the FDAs behalf. To get a sense of what this means. we must understand that the FDA sends letters to food facilities that failed inspections. They reveal gnarly conditions at major food manufacturing facilities. including cooking implements covered in mold and stored in brown. soiled water at a Detroit donut faculty. high levels of illegal drug residues in veal were found from a farm in upstate New York. and flies infesting a tortilla factory in Hagerstown. Maryland. The warning letters give the facilities in question a chance to correct sanitation mistakes before they cause serious outbreaks of food borne illness. If the commands in a warning letter are not obeyed. the FDA has the authority to punish. or even shutdown. the facility in question. These warning letters are sent to just a small fraction of all facilities that are inspected. and not all of these facilities have infractions that lead directly to illness. That means. it is impossible to say whether cancelled food safety inspections will directly lead to food consumers getting sick. However. fewer inspections can have a direct correlation to more contamination in the marketplace. For these reasons. we must end the government shutdown as soon as possible. or. barring that. to fund food safety programs with a separate bill. The following leading research and consumer groups have urged Congress to end the shutdown completely since they cannot support a legislative approach that shuts down some essential public health agencies while temporarily funding others: American Medical Student Association. Breast Cancer Action. Community Access National Network. Connecticut Center for Patient Safety. Jacobs Institute of Womens Health. National Consumers League. National Research Center for Women & Families. National Womens Health Network. Our Bodies Ourselves. The TMJ Association. WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. WoodyMatters. It is not responsible to fund the FDA at the same time that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is unable to fully function to examine the cause of epidemics caused by unsafe food or defective medical products. Mr. Speaker. if Congress fails to pass a "clean" continuing resolution before months end. FDA inspections will continue to decrease across the nation and the likelihood of consumers becoming ill will increase. This would be unconscionable. Normally I would be pleased to be here today to talk about the funding for this program. but this is different. What the majority is doing is playing games with safety of the food supply and the lives of real peoplethe lives of our families. our friends. and our constituents. For these reasons. we should be working to pass H.J. Res. 59 as amended by the Senate. That is the best way to keep faith with all persons who serve the American people as employees of the federal government. and the people who depend upon the FDA program. Hon. JOHN BOEHNER. Speaker. House of Representatives. Washington. DC. Hon. NANCY PELOSI. Democratic Leader. House of Representatives. Washington. DC.