For Immediate Release
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KOHL CALLS FOR URGENCY IN STRENGTHENING THE NATION’S FOOD SAFETY SYSTEM

  

Senator spoke at launch of Administration’s new Food Safety

Working Group

 

            WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Herb Kohl, in remarks this morning before the Administration’s new Food Safety Working Group, said “there needs to be an urgency and seriousness” to the work of strengthening the nation’s food safety system.  The group that met today included Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebellius and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, as well consumer protection and health experts from across the country.  Kohl also invited the head of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Rod Nilsestuen, to present the perspective of a state agency that has a role in food safety. 

 

            “It’s hard for me to imagine an issue more fundamental to American families.  We need to make sure government at every level is pulling toward a better food system,” Kohl said.

 

Kohl is the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over funding for the nation’s two main agencies tasked with keeping the food supply safe:  The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service within the Department of Agriculture.  In 2007, Kohl convened hearings on food safety in both Washington and Wisconsin, and has since worked to boost funding for the FDA, increase the number of food safety inspectors domestically and abroad, and develop new, regional rapid response teams across the country to identify and isolate contaminated produce at its source.

 

            “It became clear to me several years ago that our food safety needs more attention.  I helped direct more resources to both the FDA and the USDA over the past few years, but money alone is not the answer.  A task this critical and fundamental is going to require cooperation and smarter targeting of resources,” Kohl told the group.

 

            In FY2008, Kohl worked to provide an increase of $90 million over the Bush Administration’s request for the FDA, much of it directed to food safety.  For FY2009, one of Kohl’s priorities was to increase funding for the FDA of nearly $325 million over the previous year. 

 

            Going forward, Kohl is focusing his efforts on the need for federal-state coordination in national food safety matters, including inspections, centralized information and coordinated communication. 

 

            Video of Kohl’s remarks at today’s meeting can be viewed at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgLStGpnpqc