The Hill News

In the last week of 2010, as families gathered together for the holidays and home-cooked meals, the Food and Drug Administration warned us of a salmonella outbreak in alfalfa sprouts that had already sickened nearly 100 people in at least fifteen states.

These dangerous outbreaks in contaminated food can happen at any time, and it requires constant vigilance to keep Americans safe. That is why, in the first week of 2011, the president signed into law the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act â€" to strengthen our antiquated food safety system for the first time since 1938, and give FDA the tools and resources it needs to fulfill its mandate.

Yet the Republicans, who took control of the House of Representatives yesterday, are now vowing to cut funding for the Food and Drug Administration, and thereby gut the new food safety law before it can even take effect. This is a terrible idea, and it moves us in the wrong direction on food safety.

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