In 2010, it was determined by the Congressional Budget Office that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would require $580 million from 2011 to 2015 to execute the demands of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). To date, Congress has allocated less than half of that amount to the cause, according to The New York Times.
Michael R. Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, told the Times that although there are still plans to move forward with enforcing the FSMA, “The problem is we don’t have the money.”
Connecticut state representative Rosa DeLauro (D) – who played a key role in writing the food safety act – says that two parties are to blame: the White House, along with the FDA’s parent agency – the Department of Health and Human Services. Both entities attempted to “impose user fees on the food industry to help fund the law”. Such fees, paid by food companies, are used by the FDA for other programs. With much lobbying by the food industry, food safety fund requests that include user fees have been consistently rejected, even after representatives, including DeLauro, had previously warned the administration that funds including fee requests would not pass Congress.
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