A 'Yea' Vote for DSHEA '03 Would Guarantee a Clean Bill of Health for Nutritional Supplement Industry

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A 'Yea' Vote for DSHEA '03 Would Guarantee a Clean Bill of Health for

Nutritional Supplement Industry

 

 

 

 

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WASHINGTON, Oct 7, 2003 (U.S. Newswire via COMTEX) -- Nutritional supplement and

vitamin users are up in arms over new legislation proposed by Sens. Dick Durbin

(D-Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and they have good reason to be upset.

" The last thing Americans need right now is legislation that would create an

overbearing, unnecessary law that would rob them of their consumer rights,

restrict their access to dietary supplements and raise their taxes and the price

of supplements, " said Beth Clay, director of Project: FANS (Freedom of Access to

Nutritional Supplements). " And that's exactly what S.722 would do. "

But there is light at the end of the legislative tunnel. " If Durbin and Clinton

really want to see the industry properly regulated and `protect the consumer,'

then they will withdraw their current bill and support the Hatch-Harkin bill

(S.1538) that would do the job right, " continued Clay. S.1538, The DSHEA Full

Funding and Implementation Act of 2003, is designed to eliminate the need for

any new regulatory bills for the industry. Instead, the Hatch-Harkin bill would

fully fund the current law of the land that provides the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) with all the tools it needs. " To achieve the goal of

properly and more effectively regulating the supplement industry, we must pass

the Hatch-Harkin bill (S.1538), which would finally fully fund DSHEA. "

Despite overtures to the contrary, a lack of regulatory control is not a problem

in the nutritional supplement and vitamin industry. In fact, the current FDA

commissioner, Mark McClellan, has taken aggressive steps toward fully

implementing DSHEA. Passage of the Hatch-Harkin funding bill would give

McClellan the key component he needs to finish the process. " The problem is not

DSHEA and its not McClellan, " Clay said. " The problem lies with lifetime

bureaucrats who seek to undermine their own commissioner for selfish purposes.

Hatch and Harkin's funding bill would rectify this problem by providing for the

full enforcement of existing law and compel an annual reporting requirement so

Congress can fulfill its oversight responsibilities. "

http://www.usnewswire.com

CONTACT: Joe Giganti, 703-928-9695 or

Joe, for Project: FAN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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