3,561,596 members
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$19,571,785,510 diverted from Big Pharma
Leahy Bill Passes Senate – Needs to Stop in House
A once dormant bill to criminalize natural food and supplement producers is back in action. Attaching a prison sentence of up to 10 years is pretty serious for a possible ambiguous crime of adulteration and misbranding. Senator Patrick Leahy introduced this bill last year as S.3767, The Food Safety Accountability Act. Although amended, it is still too vague and ultimately considered a bad bill, even by the folks who effected its amendment.
Before we could report on the bill’s resurrection, it passed the Senate. In summary, it “Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to impose an additional fine and/or a prison term of up to 10 years for knowingly violating prohibitions of such Act against adulteration or misbranding of any food, drug, device, tobacco product, or cosmetic, or against the introduction in interstate commerce of unsafe dietary supplements, with conscious or reckless disregard of a risk of death or serious bodily injury.” See how wide open that is?
On a side note, the senator is also unpopular for introducing an Internet censorship bill at the same time. S.3084 called “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act” (COICA), it would blacklist and terminate certain websites if passed into law.
Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) has made it very easy to contact House Representatives and take action. Read more about recent bill action and follow the “Click THIS LINK” hyperlink to go to an action alert page where you can fill out a form. You can customize a letter to the House of Representatives and ANH even has a suggested message for help.
~Health Freedoms
Leahy Bill Passes in Senate—Help Us Stop It in the House!
Last week we reported on the botched language in the new Leahy bill, and how it was on a fast track. Last Thursday, unfortunately, the Senate passed the bill. But there’s still time to get the House of Representatives to listen to us! Take action now to ensure the House doesn’t introduce and pass a similar bill!
The Senate’s Food Safety Accountability Act of 2011 contains language that is open to interpretation. While intended to protect the public from food manufacturers who would harm the public with their negligence, the vague language may also be used by the FDA to attack innocent natural health food and dietary supplement producers.
A bill must, of course, be passed in both the Senate and the House, and often their versions of the same basic bill may be quite different from one another. This bill has not yet been introduced in the House, so we need to seize the opportunity and contact our representatives to tell them what needs to be fixed in the bill’s language before it is introduced, or else oppose the bill altogether. The fact that it passed in the Senate so easily shows just how much education is needed on this issue on Capitol Hill.
A House version of the The Food Safety Accountability Act of 2011 must address the vagueness in the language and carve out certain exemptions in the definition of misbranding and adulteration—or better yet, define them anew instead of referring to the extremely broad Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
We would prefer, of course, that a similar bill is not introduced in the House at all, because we can’t be certain that even a much better House bill won’t be amended by the Senate during the conference process. Please contact your representative immediately and ask him or her to fight this bill’s introduction, or work to ensure that its language doesn’t target the wrong people!
For more on the substance of the Senate bill, please see this.
Take action now!
TO SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO CONGRESS
Click THIS LINK to go to the Action Alert page. Once there, fill out the form with your name and address, etc., and customize your letter. We have a suggested message for you, but please feel free to add your own comments to the letter.
We’d also love to hear your comments about this article—just add your thoughts below—but remember that the messages below are only seen by our ANH-USA readers and not Congress, the FDA, etc.
Sources:
http://www.anh-usa.org/leahy-bill-passes-in-senate-keep-it-out-of-the-house/
http://www.anh-usa.org/urgent-action-alert-the-leahy-bill-is-back/
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-3767&tab=summary
>>>Senator Patrick Leahy introduced this bill last year as S.3767, The Food Safety Accountability Act.<<<<
I know you think you are trying to help, but please stop being on my side. Just resign already. You and your buddies in the Senate have done so much damage to this Country, to my generation and beyond. Please STOP trying to help, you're not helping.
Doctors don't know anything about supplements, much less drug companies. Who gave to your retirement fund for you to do this to the American people who know their bodies better than Big Pharma. Thanks for killing us over and over and over again.
Please STOP trying to help, you're not helping!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congress was never granted the Power by the Constitution to prohibit a citizen from eating or drinking any kind of foods etc. The 1922 “Prohibition Amendment” was passed to grant them the power to pass laws abot alcohol, only. That Power was taken back in 1932 by then President Roosevelt. The present laws causing the war on drugs and doctors was passed to cover up the banks probable bankruptcy in the 1970s onward, is a licensing law with criminal punishment attached with no Constitutional basis in the Constitution. With so many ignorant lawyers in all departments ignoring their Oaths, and most Judges ignoring their Oaths our last hope is that the People will write and call their reps and DEMAND that they oppose this atrocious bill!!!! Doc
Excellent message Dusty King!I couldn’t say it better.
Ain’t it interesting Patrick Leahy is a Democrat,and most of the Organtic and Natural crowd supports the Democrats and it’s the very Democrats who are betraying the Natural,Organic food growers.
This is a call to all americans Wake Up!!!
If you want to protect people- quit making such laws. I agree- go somewhere else and pawn your help on others. Perhaps get a real job helping people at the homeless shelters.
This bill is really showing how worthless your job really is- a monkey would be less expensive to do the same.
Who is for THE American PEOPLE? Not those who VOTED YES on the Leahy bill!!!
For it is YOU who have shackled us and fed us poison (GMOed food!), so STOP and DESIST now! Your job is to REPRESENT We The People (that is we Americans, by the way), NOT to help the greedy profit hungry fear mongers (big pharma & big business) rake in the mega trillions that they do, all the while destroying not only America, but also We Americans!
STOP STOP STOP, or, you will be working (and eating) at McDonolds!
Thank you!
It is truly sad that you folks do no understand that these congress people have taken an oath to protect and defend the United States (The Corporation) of whom we the people are just employees.(see 14th Amendment, Birth Certificates, and Social Security cards these are their ownership documents of us… We are just the herd that they profit from.)
So if you think for one minute that they care anything about your concerns you are just fooling yourself.
This should help clear things up for you.
http://republicbroadcasting.org/?p=8216
Hmmm…. So than based on that; Monsanto could end up in the slammer? Perfect!!
Stop – don’t overreact here. Laws ALREADY state that it is illegal KNOWINGLY adulterate our food and dietary supplements. This does not change any of that – all this law does is to make it so that the penalty is more than some meaningless penalty.
STOP. This law does not change the law of what constitutes a violation or adulteration. All it does is to change the penalty from a tinyh fine to a penalty with teeth. If you are in favor of pure foods and dietary supplements I would think this would be a GOOD change.
STOP. This would not change what constitutes adulteration. All it does is change it so that those that would adulterate our foods and dietary supplements would have to pay more than a small fine. I would think that those interested in pure foods and dietary supplements would be in favor of such a change. Read before you react.
READ BEFORE YOU REACT. This does not change the law. It has been and will continue to be illegal to adulterate. All this does is to make it so that those that knowningly mess with our food or dietary supplements will be subject to more than a paultry fine – which is the current state. This is a GOOD change.
Harold you are in denial you really think that Monsanto is not “Adulterating” the food supply??
You will notice that they are not included in this only those who produce actually healthy food products.
The FDA has no problem letting them poison us but those who produce products that counteract this poisoning are the ones who will be arrested and jailed.
Are you really this Daft???? as you posted basically the same message 3 times