DELAURO: FOOD SAFETY RECALL IN SPEAKER BOEHNER’S DISTRICT SHOULD SERVE AS A WAKE UP CALL FOR CONGRESS

131,300 pounds of ground beef potentially contaminated with E. coli

Washington, DC — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3), Ranking Member on the Labor, Education, Health, and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, issued the following statement today in response to the recall of 131,300 pounds of ground beef suspected to be contaminated with E. coli.

The recall was prompted by a family in Butler County, Ohio, located in the district that Speaker of the House John Boehner represents, that became ill from eating ground beef contaminated with the dangerous bacteria. The recalled meat was distributed to 16 states across the country.

In their efforts to reduce the national deficit, House Republicans cut FY2012 funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’ Food Safety Inspection Service by $46 million and the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition by $209 million. Republican Jack Kingston (GA-1) offered a justification for his party’s actions, stating that the nation’s food supply was “99.9 percent safe,” despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating that 48 million Americans get sick each year, including 28,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths, from consuming unsafe foods.

“This is a matter of priorities— Republicans have chosen to put Americans at risk by recklessly slashing funding critical to our food safety system while preserving billions of dollars in oil subsidies and tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas.

“We must fully fund the USDA and the FDA, as well as support the Food Safety Modernization Act, and ensure that they have to tools to fulfill their responsibility to protect American consumers. Instead, Republicans have effectively tied their hands, asking both agencies to do more with less and pretending that our food supply was safe.

“This latest recall should serve as a wake-up call for Speaker Boehner, and all Republicans, that food safety is an issue that affects all Americans, and we must take action. The safety of American consumers should be a priority, and I urge my Republican colleagues to recognize the seriousness of the issue and ensure that the USDA and FDA have the support they need to protect our food supply. It is literally a matter of life and death.”