Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - Clinton Proposes New Safety Measures To Ensure Imported Products Are Safe For American Families

Would Strengthen Safety Net For Imported Food, Toys and Medicine

Today in Shenandoah, IA, Hillary Clinton outlined her agenda to address the challenge of import safety for food, children's products, and drugs and medical devices. She believes that it is simply unacceptable that in America in 2007, families worry about the safety of the food they put on their dinner tables or the medicines they buy, or that any parents fear for their child's well-being every time they buy a toy.

As President, Hillary will repair our import safety net by holding foreign producers to American safety standards, making importers responsible for the food, drugs, and toys they bring into our country, expanding the number of inspectors, and stiffening penalties for violators.

"Parents shouldn't have to worry about the safety of the food they serve for Thanksgiving or the toys they buy their children for Christmas. Protecting the public is one of the most basic jobs of our government, but the Bush Administration's response to the rash of toy recalls and contaminated food scares has been slow and inadequate," Clinton said. "As President, I will make a fundamental commitment to protecting the health and safety of the American people and repair our broken consumer safety net."

Hillary will implement a broad import safety agenda, including:

• Creating a single food safety agency responsible for overseeing all federal food safety activities.
• Banning lead in children's products.
• Requiring independent third-party testing for imported toys.
• Holding foreign producers of drugs, toys, and food to American safety requirements, and holding importers liable for the products they bring into this country.
• Imposing stiffer civil penalties and pursuing criminal prosecutions against companies that put our children and citizens at risk.
• Increasing the number of inspectors at ports of entry and in foreign countries to verify that our safety rules are being followed.
• Mandating and fully funding Country of Origin Labeling.
• Appointing a Chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission whose first priority is protecting the public - not industry.

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THE CHALLENGES

America's food supply is at risk. Tens of millions of Americans contract food-borne illnesses every year; hundreds of thousands are hospitalized; and thousands die. And imported foods - especially from countries with spotty safety records like China - pose a unique and growing challenge. Food imports from China totaled more than $4 billion in 2006, nearly four times as much as a decade ago. Chinese food-import shipments are stopped at the border more often than those of any other country. And even though the FDA only inspects about 1% of imports that reach our docks, it refused nearly 300 separate shipments from China in the first four months of this year alone.

Imported toys and other products are endangering our children. China produces roughly 80 percent of the toys sold in the United States, and most of the toys in the world. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has overseen a total of 72 toy recalls this year, involving some 32 million toys - 99 percent of them made in China. Popular toys, including Thomas and Friends trains, Elmo, Big Bird, Polly Pockets, and Dora the Explorer, have been taken off of the shelves because they were covered in lead paint or because their tiny, powerful magnets could harm children if swallowed.

The Bush Administration has failed to lead. The Bush Administration has underfunded and understaffed the CPSC. The agency has only one person - a single individual - responsible for testing the safety of toys. Meanwhile, the Acting Chair, Nancy Nord, has embraced the astounding position that Congressional legislation to fully fund and equip the CPSC is "unnecessary." At the FDA, funding and staffing levels are similarly inadequate, and President Bush's appointment of a food safety "czar" within the FDA bureaucracy is a stop-gap measure. Right now, 15 agencies collectively administer more 30 laws related to food safety, and the result is fragmentation, overlap, gaps, and waste. Inadequate budgets and staffing hamper the FDA's efforts to regulate foreign drug and device makers as well.

THE SOLUTIONS Hillary will implement a broad import safety agenda to address these challenges, including:

• Creating a single food safety agency responsible for overseeing all federal food safety activities.
• Banning lead in children's products.
• Requiring independent third-party testing for imported toys
• Holding foreign producers of drugs, toys, and food to American safety requirements, and holding importers liable for the products they bring into this country.
• Imposing stiffer civil penalties and pursuing criminal prosecutions against companies that put our children and citizens at risk.
• Increasing the number of inspectors at ports of entry and in foreign countries to verify that our safety rules are being followed.
• Mandating and fully funding Country of Origin Labeling.
• Appointing a Chair of the CPSC whose first priority is protecting the public - not industry.

Protecting our Food Supply

Require foreign food producers to meet American safety requirements, and require all importers to take full responsibility for the safety of imported food, including pet food and animal feed. Hillary will take four steps:

• First, mandate that U.S.-based importers demonstrate - with full legal accountability - that their foreign suppliers are executing an effective plan to meet American safety standards through preventive controls.
• Second, mandate that foreign producers of at-risk foods and food products receive special safety certifications before they can ship to the U.S.
• Third, direct the FDA to station more personnel overseas to conduct facility inspections, and make FDA access to foreign facilities and records a condition of entry to the United States. Hillary's FDA would also develop binding agreements with foreign governments that seek to improve their food safety regulatory capacity and oversight.
• Fourth, direct the FDA to block future imports of particular food products from particular countries based on patterns of past violations. At the same time, create a "fast track" entry system for responsible importers with a proven track record of safety who also take additional steps to create a secure supply chain.

Improve our nation's import inspection system, with more inspectors, fewer ports of entry, and upgraded testing laboratories. Hillary will:

• More than double the number of FDA food inspectors to 4,500, and direct the additional personnel to increase the number and improve the effectiveness of import inspections at U.S. ports of entry. Add personnel and upgrade equipment at existing test labs.
• Direct the FDA to designate ports of entry for certain types of at-risk food products and post inspectors at all of them. Right now, there are more than 300 ports of entry but the FDA posts inspectors at less than 100.
• Require that products subject to import alerts be tested in certified labs. Prohibit unaudited labs from giving food products a clean bill of health.

Fine, prosecute, and punish importers who bring unsafe food into the country. Hillary will establish and enforce tough new civil penalties and strengthen criminal penalties for companies that import unsafe, adulterated or misbranded foods, or that falsely certify that their foreign processors have met our safety standards. Hillary will also make it illegal for companies to violate recall requirements, and impose severe civil and criminal penalties for violations.

Mandate and fund Country-of-Origin Labeling. Hillary believes we've waited too long for COOL and she will call on USDA to swiftly adopt and implement a truly workable, common-sense COOL rule. The rule will protect consumers by putting information in their hands about where their produce and food is coming from. And it will help local farmers stand out from the crowd and promote their home-grown products.

Give our safety agencies mandatory recall authority and direct them to create a national tracing system so we can determine the origin of tainted food. Hillary will authorize the FDA and USDA to mandate recalls of tainted products. Right now, the FDA and USDA lack mandatory recall authority. She will also direct the FDA, USDA, and CDC to establish an integrated national traceback system to help regulators trace food products and ingredients from their point of sale back to their origin. At present, there are gaps in our ability to determine the source of unsafe food and animal feed, which hinders efforts to control outbreaks and curb them before they spread. We must ensure that we have adequate tracking and monitoring mechanisms in place to ensure the health of our livestock, our farmers and our consumers nationwide.

Protecting our Children from Unsafe Imported Products

Establish a complete ban on lead in children's products. In 2007, there is no longer a reason for lead in toys or other products. Hillary will work with the Consumer Product Safety Commission and Congress to ensure that all children's products are lead-free.

Require third-party testing for all imported toys in at-risk categories. Hillary would require that, effective immediately, all imported toys in at-risk categories (including those containing paint, magnets, or coating) be tested by independent third-party testing organizations to assure they do not contain hazardous substances or otherwise pose serious risks to children, before they can be put on the shelves and sold. She would move to a certification and testing program for all toys - imported and domestic.

• Products must meet all mandatory and voluntary standards, must not contain any banned hazardous substances, must not pose safety risks, and must be lead-free.
• Failure to obtain a certification before putting toys on the shelves would be a prohibited act under federal law.
• The CPSC would have the authority to detain shipments that do not meet testing requirements.

Authorize the CPSC to require that selected companies pay a bond pending completion of independent third-party testing. In order to protect consumers and taxpayers from fly-by-night foreign importers, Hillary will allow the CPSC to require the posting of a bond where there are concerns (1) that the CPSC might have to detain and destroy the shipment and (2) that the company will either disappear or abandon the shipment. The CPSC will have discretion to require the bond.

Increase and enforce both civil and criminal penalties for violators. Hillary will:

• Increase criminal penalties to 5 years in jail for those who knowingly and willingly violate product safety laws, and enforce them against companies that are knowingly putting our kids at risk.
• Raise the cap on fines for failure to report known hazards from $1.85 million to $25 million and include a provision that lifts the cap entirely in extraordinary circumstances.
• Increase maximum penalties against importers who repeatedly import products that violate American law.
• Create a new penalty for retailers who sell products they know to be the subject of a recall.

Authorize a three-fold increase in the number of CPSC investigators, compliance staff, and engineers who evaluate products. Right now, only a single CPSC employee is devoted full time to testing toys. Hillary would direct that a significant number of the new hires be deployed as part of a strategy to meet the threat posed by imported children's products. To improve coordination, Customs liaison officers should be appointed to head up cooperative efforts between CPSC and Customs at major points of entry.

Bring the CPSC laboratory into the 21st century. Hillary will authorize a one-time expenditure to conduct a complete overhaul and modernization of this critical testing facility, which has not had significant improvements in three decades. She will call on the CPSC to expand the facility to prepare for increased usage based on increased inspections.

Overhaul the way in which the CPSC conducts recalls. Hillary will:

• Require that simple "recall cards" accompany at-risk categories of toys. These "cards" - which could come in the form of information printed on the package - would provide information for how parents could register online, by phone, or through the mail to be directly informed in the event of a recall.
• Increase the number of CPSC investigators who conduct recall verification inspections to ensure that recalled products are being taken off the shelves.
• Expand CPSC's powers to take strong action against a company that refuses to engage in a recall and give CPSC - not the companies - power to determine recall remedies.
• Empower consumers by speeding and simplifying CPSC's public release of product safety information and reports of adverse events.

Protecting Americans from Unsafe Imported Over-the-counter and Prescription Medications and Medical Devices

Require that foreign drug makers produce a certification that they have met American safety standards as a condition of import into the United States. Hillary will mandate that foreign producers of finished drugs and drug ingredients and medical devices demonstrate that: their production facilities are subject to national regulations that are at least as stringent as American law; they have passed a thorough FDA inspection confirming that they are following American standards of care and preventive process controls; or they have undergone accredited independent third-party testing and review of their production processes and their finished products. She will also open permanent FDA oversight offices in at-risk countries like China.

Require foreign drug and medical device manufacturers to accept random, unannounced onsite inspections as a condition of import. Rather than the current approach of pre-announcing inspections that give foreign drug makers an opportunity to clean up their act, Hillary will direct the FDA to switch to surprise visits, as it does for domestic manufacturers.

Direct the FDA to conduct a risk assessment of other imported products, including daily-use products such as toothpaste and cosmetics, as well as pet food and veterinary drugs.

Restoring Federal Leadership

Appoint a Chair to lead the CPSC who is a true advocate for product safety. Hillary believes that CPSC Acting Chair Nancy Nord's reluctance to accept greater funding and staffing to carry out CPSC's mandate is unacceptable. She calls on Acting Chair Nord to embrace – rather than reject – additional resources and to vigorously enforce the nation's safety laws. Within 60 days of taking office, Hillary will appoint a Chair to lead the Commission who is prepared to meet the consumer safety challenges of the 21st century.

Move toward a single Food Safety Administration responsible for all food products, with strong authorities to protect consumers. Hillary will work to centralize our nation's food safety efforts in one agency, so that multiple bodies aren't policing imports and setting separate standards. She believes that the current regulatory system is broken and that we can only meet the challenges we face through a single agency that uses a uniform system of tracing and inspection to ensure the highest standards of safety and quality from food's origin to it consumption.

Double funding for both the CPSC and the FDA.

• For the CPSC, increase the budget to $140 million, with appropriate increases over the years. In real terms, the current budget of the CPSC is half of what it was in 1977.
• For the FDA, increase the food safety budget to $1.1 billion over the next five years. Start with an immediate increase of $200 million.