Tell the House: Fund Food Safety Reform Legislation

It took more than a year-and-a-half of campaigning and several bumps in the road, but President Obama finally signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. The legislation will overhaul the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with the goal of closing up the gaping holes in America's food safety system and greatly reducing the incidence of foodborne illnesses. Now there's just one hurdle left.

The food safety reform bill may be an official law now, but lawmakers still haven't outlined a way to pay for the legislation. The law boasts a $1.4 billion price tag, and the Republican-controlled House doesn't exactly seem keen on coming up with the cash. Rep. Jack Kingston, who hopes to become chairman of the agriculture subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, expressed some serious doubt about the need for this amount of dough. Kingston recently declared that "our food supply is 99.999 percent safe." He then went out to tell the Associated Press that "I think we'll look very carefully at the funding before we support $1.4 billion."

The CDC estimates that 48 million Americans come down with foodborne illness every year, resulting in 180,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. Plus, this summer saw the most massive salmonella outbreak in recent history. It's very clear that we do, in fact, desperately need food safety reform as well as a way to pay for it.

The FDA needs a big overhaul, and to do that, it needs $1.4 billion. Consumer health depends on it. Please sign our petition and ask your representatives to find a way to pay for the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.

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