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Senate Bill Addressing Food Safety Is Stalled

By GARDINER HARRIS - September 18, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/health/policy/19food.html?hp

WASHINGTON — After his mother died from eating contaminated peanut butter, Jeff Almer went to Washington to push for legislation that might save others from similar fates. And then he went again. And again. And again.

Nearly two years have passed since Shirley Almer’s death. In that time, food contamination involving chocolate chip cookie dough and eggs has sickened thousands more.

But the Senate has still not acted to fix many of the flaws in the nation’s food safety system — although a bill to do so has broad bipartisan support, is a priority for the Obama administration and has the backing of both industry and consumer groups. The House passed its version of the bill more than a year ago.

“It’s so frustrating,” said Mr. Almer, of Savage, Minn. “I don’t even know who to blame.”

The blame lies with a tight Senate calendar, a stubborn senator from Oklahoma and an unusual coalition of left- and right-wing advocates for small farmers who have mounted a surprisingly effective Internet campaign. Their e-mail messages have warned, among other untruths, that the bill would outlaw organic farming.

Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of food and drugs, said in an interview that she was still confident the legislation would pass, although she confessed to being bewildered by the lengthy battle to schedule a vote.

“This is a historic opportunity,” Dr. Hamburg said. “This legislation would provide F.D.A. with important resources and authorities that we really need to be able to do our important job.”

The latest hope for the bill’s advocates was that Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, would schedule a vote on the bill this week. But the Senate calendar is full of measures that need to be passed before members leave in October to campaign, so Mr. Reid sought a routine agreement to limit debate on the measure.

Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, refused, saying that the powers granted to the F.D.A. in the bill would have financial costs, and that those costs needed to be offset by spending reductions.

Mr. Coburn also expressed doubts that expanding the authority of the F.D.A. would “result in improved food safety,” said John Hart, his spokesman.

Mr. Reid responded Thursday, saying, “In light of recent events like the egg recall in Iowa, it is unconscionable that Senator Coburn and his Republican colleagues are putting politics ahead of a common-sense, bipartisan bill to ensure that the food products our families consume every day are safe.”

So the legislation may have to wait until the Senate’s lame-duck session after November’s elections, when it still could die. Many of the gaps in the nation’s food protection system that the bill would close became apparent in the recent recall of 500 million eggs after more than 1,500 people became ill.

For instance, the F.D.A. never inspected the Iowa egg facilities at the center of the recalls. Even if it had, the agency would not have had the power to order that their eggs be recalled despite conditions it later found to be filthy. And until recently, producers were not required to ensure that their eggs were safe.

By requiring regular inspections of high-risk facilities, providing the F.D.A. with the power to order recalls and demanding that food makers create plans to process food safely, the proposed legislation would change many of the circumstances that led to the illnesses.

But in a little-known footnote to the egg recall, inspectors from the Agriculture Department regularly visited the Iowa egg facilities to grade the eggs and noted unsanitary conditions but never told the F.D.A. about them. That kind of poor communication and coordination between the government’s main food agencies is routine, and the legislation stalled in the Senate would do little to correct them.

Nonetheless, mainstream consumer advocates and major food makers are nearly united in calling for the legislation’s passage. Just a few years ago, many manufacturers were opposed to expanding the F.D.A.’s food authority. But when a relatively small producer sold contaminated spinach several years ago, the entire industry’s crop was thrown out, resulting in huge, industrywide losses. And once a food contamination scare affects a product, sales are slow to return to normal.

Tired of getting punished for the sloppiness of others, food companies have become so supportive of greater government oversight that they even embraced a House proposal to charge manufacturers an annual registration fee to finance more regular inspections. That proposal is not in the Senate bill.

“Industry needs a strong partner at F.D.A. with the right tools and, importantly, the right resources,” said Scott Faber, vice president of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Cries of alarm about the legislation have arisen from some small farmers and their advocates, who have argued that the new regulations would be too costly and that F.D.A. inspectors would come barging into their homes. Linn Cohen-Cole, a small-farm advocate from Atlanta, calls the bill “a fascist takeover of the entire food supply.”

The bill’s sponsors in the Senate agreed to allow some exemptions for small farms and facilities, but those provisions are not forceful enough for Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana. In an interview, Mr. Tester promised to offer amendments that were “meant to let state and local laws deal with small producers, and the federal government will deal with the big guys.”

Both industry and consumer advocates have argued against such exemptions, saying that all food needs to be safe and that state and local laws often provide few protections.

Another source of conflict has been a proposal by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, to ban the use of bisphenol-A, or B.P.A., in food and drink containers used by children. After failing to persuade her colleagues to include the ban in the bill itself, Mrs. Feinstein promised to offer it as an amendment.

No matter how such issues are resolved, consumer and industry advocates have called for some form of the legislation to be passed.

“People understand that eggs can be contaminated, spinach can be contaminated, peanut butter can be contaminated,” said Erik Olson, the deputy director of the Pew Health Group. “And it really is the government’s responsibility to prevent that.”