Thursday, March 02, 2006

ACTION ALERT UPDATE: H.R. 4167 Vote Delayed

From Consumer's Union/NotInMyFood.org:
Congress was about to pass a bill this morning to gut food safety laws in California and across the country--without even holding a hearing on the bill! The good news: the House decided to delay the vote until next week, and they've actually scheduled time for debate on the issue!

Our representatives are finally listening--and now we need to keep the pressure on. Please forward this email to five people you think might want to help us preserve our state and local food safety net. Ask them to take action today! They can go to our food campaign home page at NotInMyFood.org.

H.R. 4167, the "National Uniformity for Food Act," lowers the bar on food safety by overturning state food safety laws that are not "identical" to federal law. The bill could directly harm consumers by increasing their exposure to food-borne illnesses, undermining the authority of state food safety officers, and overturning state food labeling laws. We need to stop this bill!

Industry supporters of this bill claim that they are "standardizing" food safety regulations - but don't be fooled. What this bill really does is lowers all state food safety regulations to the lowest federal standard. Local and state officials are now responsible for 80% of the nation's food safety enforcement, and this bill would restrict the ability of local officials in California to protect you and your family as best they can.

We need stronger protections for our nation's food supplies, not weaker ones. We now know that Congress is listening to us - and your email to five friends today can defeat this bad idea! They can write to their lawmakers from our food campaign home page: NotInMyFood.org.

1 comment:

Christina said...

Found your site while lurking around on other blogs. Great to see that others are working to get the word out on this important issue. Peace!