IAHF List:

Here is Byron Richard's latest report on S.1082.  Below Byron's information you'll see a list of Congressmen who are in the Dietary Supplement Caucus. They'd be the best people to approach in the House to try to get our amendment there, and it would be easier to get our amendment in the House than the senate.

 You'll be glad to know that lots of people have been calling Congress and that at the very least we did succeed in getting statements from some key senators put into the congressional record which express that the intent of this bill is to not impact DSHEA..... the problem is they can have these sort of colloquys all day long, yet unless we get our specific amendment, FDA could just ignore them and draft implementing regs that screw us. So we must keep making our calls and sending our faxes.....

BYRON RICHARDS UPDATE:

The Senate finished debate today on S1082.  Dorgan offered a new Amendment to demand true anti-counterfeit technology to the bill.  Enzi and Dorgan debated – with Dorgan tearing him to pieces – although I doubt it will matter.  Also, Sherrod Brown discussed his amendment to prevent Big Pharma from gaming a citizen’s petition system that Big Pharma uses to delay generic drug competition (some aspect of this may make it into the legislation).  Durbin offered an amendment for meaningful changes to FDA advisory panels.  This is a really good amendment and is unlikely to go anywhere.    Thus, Kennedy and Enzi are stonewalling all meaningful change to protect Big Pharma.  THIS BILL IS GOING TO PASS – even people like Dorgan say they will support it as they feel, depite its shortcomings, it is better than the current state of affairs.  So it is definitely a matter of what amendments get added to it that will make a difference. We must keep telling people to support our amendment to protect dietary supplements and functional foods.  Here is my current wording: Please keep up the pressure to protect dietary supplements, functional foods, and access to your natural health options.  To get information on contacting your Senators, click here: The People’s Amendment:S.1082 - Please Amend to Protect Dietary Supplements May 7, 2007 The Honorable (Senator First and Last Name) Address
Address Dear Senator Last Name; The issue of drug safety is of the utmost importance to myself and all Americans. I am concerned that the legislation, as currently written, opens the door for considerable regulatory confusion enabling the FDA to use S.1082 to undermine my access to safe and effective dietary supplements. There must be no confusing the safety of drugs and the safety of food and food ingredients – which are governed by different laws. This bill authorizes the creation of a new regulatory category that enables the FDA and the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA to attack dietary supplements and functional foods. I am sure you and other Senators were not intending to create such concern among the 150 million Americans who rely on dietary supplements to assist their health, and this matter is easily corrected with a simple amendment. Proposed amendment to S1082:
“The bill, S1082, is hereby amended to eliminate any reference to the terms food or food ingredients within Subtitle B - Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration, such that food and food ingredients will not be subject to any jurisdiction or control by the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration.”

Intent of amendment:
To eliminate from the bill any possibility that food or food ingredients would be treated like drugs either for safety review purposes or for assessment of their efficacy. It is a fundamental tenet of food and drug law that foods and food ingredients are presumed to be safe and have to be established to be adulterated only if they present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury.

Johns addition to Byron's Update:

In addition to your senators, please also contact the members of the Dietary Supplement Caucus to ask them to sponsor our amendment when this legislation gets introduced in the House (they'll probably just introduce the Senate bill as a House bill:

DIETARY SUPPLEMENT CAUCUS

Congressman Ron Paul

Congressman Dan Burton

Congressman Peter De Fazio

Congressman Chris Cannon

Congressman Frank Pallone

Reead them all via 202-225- 3121 Capital Switchard, ask for their fax numbers. Explain to them that when S.1082 gets introduced in the House that we need this amendment.

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