Notes

Introduced by: Skogg, Krause and McCarty

A Bill for an act entitled: Food Safety Assurance

Section 1: Purpose: To thoroughly guarantee the sanitation of various processed foods, such as meat and vegetables.

Section 2: Definitions:

Common Welfare: The concern of the government for the health, peace, morality, and safety of its citizens.

FDA: The Food and Drug Administration, the US agency in charge of monitoring the safety of consumable goods and medicine.

Section 3: General Provisions
The Government was enacted to protect the people. It is stated in the Constitution of the United States that "Congress shall pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States." Citizens do not always have the power to protect themselves. Therefore, the government does have a responsibility to protect its people.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year an estimated 87 million Americans, nearly ¼ of all the people living in our nation (313.9 million is the total population (2012 - US census bureau)) are sickened by contaminated food, 371,000 are hospitalized with food-borne illness, and 5,700 die from food-related disease.

Because the FDA is limited to reactive legislation, according to senator Kirsten Gillibrand, it is imperative that we increase their ability to regulate and test, in order to most safely reduce the risk created by disease and eating food unsafe consumption.

This bill would enforce an increase in records submitted to the FDA, as well as an increase in funds to assist with the testing and enactment of new legislation.

Legislation will be encouraged to be less reactionary under these provisions in order to ensure best that the FDA can regulate conducively, without impairments caused by waiting for an outbreak of disease to happen and waiting until after widespread damage has been caused in order to create legislation.

These actions will allow for the US Government and the FDA to better fulfill its obligation to provide for the general welfare of the citizens of the US, as well as decrease the potential for disease to spread, this will in the long run keep medical costs down.

Section 4: Administration and enforcement: The provisions of this act will be enforced and administered by The Food and Drug Administration. The FDA will have the power to take action in the ways specified in Section 5, should they feel that such action is necessary to ensure the safety of the public. When issues arise, such as concerns and complaints of the sanitation of a company, restaurant, or other food producing business, action should be taken based on how many people the business affects. For example, a large company that provides food to many thousands of families should be investigated on a national level. A business that affects perhaps a few hundred should be investigated by the local government. The penalties in all cases will be determined and enforced by The FDA.

Section 5: Penalties:
A reasonable penalty will be immediate shutdown of the place of business, however the amount of time will be case by case, depending on the degree of the penalty itself and the history of the company.

Section 6: Effective date:
The following bill will be in effect in approximately six months, on March 31, 2014.