DELAURO PUSHES FOR MORE FUNDING AND BETTER OVERSIGHT IN WAKE OF SEAFOOD SAFETY REPORT

Washington, DC— Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3), Ranking Member on the Labor, Education, Health, and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, released the following statement about the GAO's new report, "Seafood Safety: FDA Needs to Improve Oversight of Imported Seafood and Better Leverage Limited Resources."The report focuses specifically on the lack of inspection for unapproved drugs, such as antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections, in imported seafood.

As former chairwoman of the Agriculture-FDA Appropriations Subcommittee, Congresswoman DeLauro made food safety a top priority, and is continuing to push for increased funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ensure that they have the resources they need to protect the public from unsafe food.

"Currently 84 percent of the seafood consumed in the United States is imported, yet only one in every ten imported fish, shellfish, shrimp, or other seafood is tested for drug residues when it enters our country. The GAO findings further highlight the need to modernize the FDA's approach to ensuring the safety of imported seafood in order to keep up with the every-increasing quantities of seafood we import from more than 100 countries. Currently, our testing processes do not adequately test imported seafood for potential chemicals not approved for use in the United States. The Food Safety Modernization Act included several provisions to help meet that need, but we must do more. American consumers deserve better.

"Another critical aspect of this issue is trade— and as the Administration continues to move forward with Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), we cannot allow trade to trump food safety. In particular, food safety must be a top priority in the ongoing negotiations over a Trans-Pacific Partnership FTA that involves Vietnam, a country we import a large amount of seafood from.

"This report makes clear to me that the FDA must improve their review of imported food so that we inspect and analyze a higher percentage of seafood and look for drug residues that present a risk to the health of American consumers. We must ensure that the FDA has the additional resources needed to be successful at their mission in ensuring the safety of these products and the protection of the American public. And in light of the Republicans' reckless budget cuts coming in 2012, it will be an uphill battle—but one that must be fought."