In a letter to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), several members of the House and Senate demanded last week, on July 15, that the agency stop doing some of the very work it is empowered to do on behalf of Americans: regulate food safety.
The letter follows up on legislation passed by the House last month — an amendment to an FDA (and other agency) appropriations bill introduced by Representatives Don Young (R-Alaska) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) — which bars the FDA from expending funds to approve a genetically engineered salmon (which grows faster than its wild cohorts), regardless of the agency’s unprecedented and unequivocal scientific and environmental review. Senators are threatening similar legislation.
Their rationale is, "Given the strong and growing congressional opposition to the approval of [genetically engineered] fish in both chambers, spending time on further review…would be a waste of taxpayer dollars."
Read the complete opinion piece from The Hill.