JEFFREY BROWN: Now, Caroline Smith DeWaal, in that timeline she mentioned July. New guidelines came into place in July, right?
CAROLINE SMITH DEWAAL: We had been waiting for these regulations for 10 years, Jeff. These are regulations. They had been subject to pilot studies, risk assessments. They were
strongly science-based regulations, but they had been languishing at the Department of Health and Human Services throughout the entire Bush administration. ***
JEFFREY BROWN: Well, Elizabeth, tell us then about what FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg brought up today, the legislation that sits before Congress now. What would it do?
ELIZABETH WEISE: Well, interestingly, because we now have the egg rule in place, it would affect eggs less than other things. The place it's going to be strongest I think is on leafy greens, and we of course had the issue with spinach a couple of years back. But what it does is
it gives FDA more regulatory clout, it gives them the right to do mandatory recalls. And at this point, FDA can only ask for a voluntary recall on the part of food producers. So, in General, it just gives them a lot more power, and
it would also give them some more funding, because they're going to be out doing investigations, do testing. And testing costs money because people cost money.
***
more:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec10/eggs_08-23.htmlRegulatory agencies that protect average Americans -- underfunded and underpowered under Bu**sh** -- as per the usual neocon strategy of letting effective government "wither on the vine" (test your memory: who did you first hear use that expression, and in regard to what gov't program?).