DeLauro Confident U.S. Food Safety Law Will Pass In 2010

Another law examining how meat and poultry are inspected may follow.

House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) is predicting that Congress this year will pass legislation to overhaul its outdated food safety system. DeLauro says she believes the law would overcome the Senate's legislative log-jam caused by the healthcare and financial regulatory reform and be approved by President Obama by the end of the year.

A further law examining how meat and poultry are inspected may follow in the wake of the food safety revamp, said DeLauro, adding the measure could create problems with trade partners. "I have every confidence that we are going to pass food safety legislation and this legislation is going to get to the president for a signature and that that's going to happen this year," said DeLauro.

The food safety bill –– the first reform of the U.S. system in half a century –– has also been held up by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which has indicated that officials there want to make certain that planned food safety reforms do not breach existing trade agreements.

But DeLauro appeared to be getting impatient with the delay, saying: "Trade should never trump public health."

DeLauro said her subcommittee will hold hearings between now and the summer to discuss whether new trade agreements negotiated by the U.S. should include food safety provisions.

"We need to do something before the agreement is put into place that guarantees that the product and its process and its manufacture is equal to the process that exists in the United States," she said.

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