New Senate Supplements Bill Expected
April 20, 2010
Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), both supporters of natural health and supplements, plan to introduce new legislation, the Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010, within the coming weeks. The bill will fully fund FDA implementation of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), the legislation that governs the regulation of dietary supplements.
At the present time, opponents of dietary supplements and natural health make false claims that supplements are not regulated and therefore unsafe.
We completely disagree. In the first place, federal regulation does not ensure safety. Second, supplement producers are currently regulated by DSHEA, mandated to report adverse events, and required to comply with Good Manufacturing Practice regulations. The Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010 is intended to fund all DSHEA regulatory provisions and therefore rebut the argument by supplement opponents that the supplement industry is not really regulated due to a lack of funding.
Will this work as intended? No one can say for sure. It is possible that the FDA will misuse the funds to persecute supplements. On the other hand, this funding means that, for the first time, some FDA employees will see their jobs as being funded by supplements and likely to disappear if supplements disappear. Perhaps that will work to the advantage of natural health. Only time will tell. In the meantime, the bill will effectively rebut those who keep claiming, falsely, that supplements are unregulated.
Important note: the bill is likely to include some provisions drafted by Senator John McCain (R-AZ). McCain might even end up as a bill sponsor. But this does not worry us. One of the two McCain provisions requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to notify the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) if a new supplement ( so-called New Dietary Ingredient or NDI) may contain anabolic steroids. This is not an objectionable provision.
The second McCain provision that may be included in the bill will attempt to clarify the New Dietary Ingredient Process. This is the process whereby supplement manufacturers may petition the FDA to sell substances not sold prior to 1994, the year DSHEA passed. This is a very sensitive area for natural health supporters because of the recent tendency of drug companies to try to convert supplements not sold prior to 1994 into exclusive prescription drugs. We are confident that any provision agreed to by Senators Harkin and Hatch will protect natural health and supplements. But we will have to wait for the particular language. We will report back to you as soon as we have more particulars.
Individuals who rely on dietary supplements need to know that the supplements they take daily to improve their health may be impacted by this law. If we want to make our stance known on this issue, should we write to our local congressmen, contact Senators Orrin & Hatch, or is there someone else we should contact? How should we make our voices heard? I’ve posted information about this legislation on my website, but would love to let my readers know who they should contact to express their opinion about their stance on this issue. http://www.livingbetterfeelingbetter.typepad.com/blog/
Keep the FDA out of it as they are nothing more than extension of the drug industry and use funding for the drug company interests, not the people. Government is corrupt with its corporate partners. Show men what they have done that is efficent and its works as intended originally. I rest my case.
[...] Posted April 21, 2010 Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) plan to introduce new legislation, the Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010, within the coming weeks. Read full article. [...]
McCain should worry more about all the tons of hormones injected in U.S. food supply each year and not in supplements.
We are not completely in favor of this, FDA Could possibly control ,afraid it will stop some of our good uses of supplements, or completely take them away? James I.
I appreciate the fact that supplements will be recognized by our government as something of which requires regulation – how it will ultimately affect our Wellness business practices, & the actual outcome for our overall health does remain to be seen.
I am against the FDA regulating and controlling supplements! That is already happening in Argentina, and valuable supplements are disappearing from health food and drug store shelves! The public should know about these government maneuvers and take immediate action. Thank you ANH!
Stop.
This is insane. How many people die each year of supplements? Over 100,000 die each year from prescriptions. Get the prescriptions right! Don’t mess with supplements.
Larry Bolgar
repeal this new bill and repeal the McCain bill also.
God Bless Senators Hatch and Harkin! God Bless their bill they are proposing. I am praying it will pass so we will have a “choice”. Thank you Senators!
Since when does more regulation solve ANYTHING? Don’t we have WAY more than plenty of laws on the books? Even the best intentioned laws will not protect the consumer from themself. Only personal responsibility can do that. Likewise only electing true statesmen can preserve a nation from oppressive government.
McCain, in my opinion is a total douchebag, His douchebaggery leaves me completely breathless. After 27 years in healthcare watching the status quo evsicerate the public, my stance on modern medicine is to STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM IT. Statistics support my stance. Keep up your assualt on the health freedom movement & you will hear a great deal more from. me… I who am on the frontline of healthcare watching you kill the masses.
I started in 1957 with dr. fraulo in the very early day’s of talking vitamins for health’s sake !!!!!!!! Two year’r later he sent me to ” The brain bio center ” in Prlncton n.j. for blood & urine test’s . I was talking 3000 mgs of vitamin c & 3000 mgs of niacin which now it’s known for good heart health which the f.d.a. did not want known so drug company’s could sell expensive drug’s whiich are harmull stopping vitamin’s &mineral’s for me is like pulling the exicution switch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!thank you
I posted this to Facebook. I think enough is enough. I am tired of “officials” in bed with Big Pharma telling us that chemical drugs are going to save us.
Everyone needs to share this with all social media! The FDA already told Blue Diamond that they couldn’t post known scientific facts about walnuts being good for your heart and brain. All because according to them, only drugs can cure disease. Give me a break! Is this the world you want to live in?
I saw a box of cereal called eating right. Right on the front, it says Natural and Artificial Flavors and in the ingredients is partially hydrogenated sunflower oil and high fructose corn syrup.
Yep, that’s eating right!!!
The FDA so far, has not been able to protect the public from pharmaceutical drugs that kill thousands of people and cause major health risks. How do they think they can protect the public from supplements?
Regarding health care supplements, more and more physicians are telling patients to obtain particular ones, i.e. fish oil for eyes and B6 for lungs which have been compromised by exposure to TB, calcium & D for bones, etc. Please make sure dietary supplements are not overly taxed as they are expensive as is and are needed for health. These are not covered by health savings or flexible spending. Those of us on social security and medicare have problems making ends meet and are the most probable to need these supplements. Thank you for your consideration.
2009 in review: A year of FDA censorship, Big Pharma crimes and celebrity drug deaths
http://www.naturalnews.com/027851_health_news_Big_Pharma.html
2009 has been a crazy year for health and medicine. It was the year that Congress rammed through a mandatory health “reform” bill that violates the U.S. Constitution in forcing all Americans to buy government-mandated products and services from greedy corporations. Although it hasn’t been signed into law yet, the very fact that it has been passed by both the House and the Senate is alarming: America is just one signature away from becoming a medical dictatorship.
America Does Not Have A Shortage of Doctors; It Has An Excess of Disease
http://www.naturalnews.com/028577_doctors_shortage.html
Doctors Warn: Avoid Jew Monsanto Genetically Modified Food
http://www.responsibletechnology.org/utility/showArticle/?objectID=2989
Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda
http://www.naturalnews.com/np/Big_Pharma.html
Billions of People Expected to Die Under Current Codex Alimentarius Guidelines
http://www.naturalnews.com/026663_CODEX_food_health.html
Your right to eat healthy food and use supplements of your choice is rapidly vanishing, but every effort has been made to keep you in the dark about the coming nutricide. Codex Alimentarius is scheduled for full global implementation on December 31, 2009, and not a word has been spoken in main stream media about this threat to humanity.
Consumers Stop Big Pharma Supplements Takeover – For Now
Rima E. Laibow, MD
Medical Director – Natural Solutions Foundation – 5-4-7
http://www.rense.com/general76/consumer.htm
Doctors Now Leading Cause Of Death In US
Death by Medicine
Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD
Debora Rasio MD, Dorothy Smith PhD
http://www.nutritioninstituteofamerica.net/research/DeathByMedicine/DeathByMedicine1.htm
As always I want to thank you for keeping us up to date on any new developments regarding our freedoms/rights to choose the drug free way to health! Bravo and I await your next newsletter regarding what direction this bill takes! Hopefully Senators Harkin and Hatch along with Senator McCain will make a positive impact on our supplementation freedoms!
Thanks again for your up to the minute reports and information!!
It appears that this bill is channeling McCain’s hysteria about steroids tainting supplements away from the potentially dangerous and problematic Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) toward a more protective bill. But I remain concerned since McCain is being incorporated into the drafting despite his lack of understanding about steroids, derivatives of testosterone, or prohormones like DHEA (a steroid, though not as anabolic/androgenic as testosterone). McCain tried to ban DHEA before; what ensures that this bill does not allow for him (or the FDA) to try this again? Moreover, the supposed issue of “tainting” with steroids – i.e. putting testosterone or its derivatives among iron supplements- should be resolved by conforming with GMP certification and related regulations. We don’t need overly broad language (which could reduce the freedom/access of supplement users) when a specific rule will suffice.
This bill is very DANGEROUS for true Health Freedom. The FDA abused its power with the 1994 DSHEA bill, doing the EXACT OPPOSITE of what Congress intended to accomplish. Instead of educating the public on the correlation between diseases and poor nutrition, the FDA began to prohibit the disseminating of true cures and of information which would eradicate most diseases. They have been using taxpayers money to keep America sick–It is a New World Order plan. It doesn’t matter what the health bill says–by giving the FDA more power, they will increasingly prosecute companies which have cutting edge supplements that cure diseases. Already, they have either chased companies with cancer successes out of this country, or pressed legal cases against them–hoxsey, cancel/cantron, cansema, Dr. Burzynski, etc. They brought a legal case against True Health Inc. for 2 years until the company promised it wouldn’t mention its success treating AIDS and HIV. (Some became HIV negative.) They went after Sea Silver until the owner quit because of legaln expenses, etc.
In regard to food suppements, I trust Sen. Orrin Hatch- anything that McCain gets his hands on, I will be extemely wary!
Leave natural supplements alone and just continue using the process that’s been used for so many years.
I depend on your group to watch all this legislation carefully. I will depend on your decisions to protect the supplements that keep I and my husband healthy so that we can use our Medicare carefully and frugally—almost not at all. We are 72 and 71, are free of diabetes, are on one medication each, and lead a healthy lifestyle, using the Wii for strength exercises as well as yoga and their new balance/brain exercises. We thank the more natural, preventive medicine interests of the naturopathic professionals. Our son left the medical profession because physicians were more and more being used by drug companies to prescribe their medications. Instead, he teaches violin in another country. His special talent was diagnosing patients. He is a loss to the medical profession.
can this potentially force the FDA to release estriol and pyridoxamine back to the public?
And block any future “Citizens’ Petitions” by the Pharm producers?
We do not need this legislation. Now we have to worry about Republicans taking away our freedoms. Does it never stop. Well, if that is the case we can also vote you out.
This is great news. And a truly helpful update and explanation.
Praise God for two Senators who do their homework and understand the value and importance of supplements for the health of americans.
Thank you Senators Hatch and Harkin for your continued attention and work for the american people!
I understand that the Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010, will come before you in the next few weeks. I implore you to do your homework about supplements. Most of the companies I am familiar with, do an enormous amount of testing and use high quality ingredients.
If you take a look at prescription drugs, which are regulated by the FDA, you will see that many people have tremendous side effects, including death. I believe that because the FDA regulates something, doesn’t necessarily make it safe for us.
Thank you so very much for doing the work and keeping us informed. I’m so glad that there are people like you, and legislators as well, who want this supplement bill to pass. Supplements have improved my life immensely with no side effects, none. I feel very confident in taking what my doctor has suggested to me. jan
Why don’t they admit the truth..They want to make money off these popular supplements which will then raise the prices having NOTHING to do with anything but their pocketbooks.
Noone is pushing supplements down anyone’s throat the way congress pushed Obanacare down our throats. What are they trying to prove? Aren’t American citizens allowed to think for themselves about anything anymore? The Pill Czar will tell us what to do.
I applaude Senators Hatch and Harkin for support natural supplements. One would have to wonder WHO is behind trying to control supplements. I suspect that the pharmaceuticals would be very happy to remove supplements, like red yeast rice, and so many others, that have helped people without being forced to pay a fortune for prescription drugs or to take drugs that cause more serious side effects than healings. This business has become some corrupt and I’m “very” inclinded to think the FDA is very much involved. Count the deaths related to prescriptions and compare them to the deaths caused by supplements. I would be curious to see the difference.
Dear Sir I respectfully disagree totallly that the FDA should regulate anything concerning natural supplements made from foods or herbs or minerals. These are not drugs and therefore should be left to the open market as they are now. Give the FDA a nose in the tent and soon they will take over the tent.
BOY, I SEE SOME POTENTIAL HAZARDS WITH THIS LEGISLATION BUT, AS YOU HAVE SAID, WE REALLY NEED TO SEE WHAT IS REALLY IN IT. I DO NOT TRUST THE FDA AND THEY HAVE A LONG TRACK RECORD THAT MAKES MY POINT. DON’T EXPECT TO SEE A CHANGE IN THE DECADES LONG EMBEDDED CULTURE AT FDA. AMONG A WHOLE LIST OF POTENTIAL MISCHIEF MAKING IS WHAT THEY WOULD LIKE TO LABEL AS AN ANABOLIC STEROID, NAMELY DHEA. BE DILIGENT. VERY DILIGENT.
PS. ISN’T THERE A POTENTIAL STRONG HEAD OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, MAYBE A FUTURE PRESIDENT, CONGRESSIONAL PERSON OR COALITION THAT HAS THE WILLINGNESS AND POWER AND AUTHORITY TO COMPLETELY BRING ABOUT TOTAL TRANFORMATION OF THIS OUT OF CONTROL GOVERNMENT AGENCY? (FDA). IDEALLY, A NEW SYSTEM OF INTEGRATIVE FREE MARKET, COST EFFECTIVE HEALTHCARE WITH AN EMPHASIS ON WELLNESS RATHER THAN SICKNESS WOULD REALLY BE A CHANGE I COULD BELIEVE IN. ONE CAN ONLY HOPE.
I support Hatch and Harkin bill supporting protection of supplements…Will look at the wording carefully before fully supporting this bill.
Does anyone else besides me see that the government is very busy shutting all the doors to free choice, to responsible living, to independence?
I just joined ANH-USA, but after reading the above article am already concerned that you are just another fake “natural health” group fronting for the medical bureaucrats and working to get increased bureaucratic regulation implemented, under the guise of “reasonableness.”
After armed FDA raids on the clinics of supplement-providing doctors…merciless attacks on perfectly safe nutritional supplements…ridiculous attempts to suppress information on the health benefits of simple foods like cherries or walnuts…destruction of careers and businesses of natural health providers…WHAT ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH COULD POSSIBLY MAKE YOU THINK GIVING THESE BASTARDS MORE TAXPAYER MONIES MIGHT BE A GOOD THING?
Until I see you willing to take a more forthright and bold stand against further bureaucratic regulation of the supplement community, I will have no choice but to refrain from passing your articles along to my 60,000 readers, and will indeed have to voice my skeptism instead.
You have to decide which side you’re on. There’s no middle ground.
Please vote against this bill! The FDA is completely uneducated and uninformed about dietary supplement regulation procedures. It has been shown time and again that Federal regulations do not ensure safety nor informed decisions in this matter. Please reconsider!
What is going on?
Does the US Government just HATE the American people?
I currently have an income of $830 per month, and I spend about $100 of that on supplements. They keep me healthy, and some were recommended by my doctor.
None of this is covered by my prescription insurance, and the only drug I take also isn’t covered.
If I can’t afford to buy these supplements, I’ll need PLENTY of government money and support just to continue living. Or is the idea that you WANT to kill us?
Without the American people, there will BE no US government!
Wake up and help the PEOPLE, not the DRUG COMPANIES! Forget the bribes they’re giving you and help the people who elected you, for a change!
This is a subject of utmost importance to me and my family. We do not take drugs and prefer to heal with food and supplements. Should supplements ever be considered drugs and regulated as such by the FDA we would not be able to afford them. Thanks so much for keeping us posted.
I believe that the following information is critical for health freedom and I agree with it.
Gina Liberti
Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Tom Harkin (D-IA), both supporters of natural health and supplements, plan to introduce new legislation, the Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010, within the coming weeks. The bill will fully fund FDA implementation of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), the legislation that governs the regulation of dietary supplements.
At the present time, opponents of dietary supplements and natural health make false claims that supplements are not regulated and therefore unsafe.
We completely disagree. In the first place, federal regulation does not ensure safety. Second, supplement producers are currently regulated by DSHEA, mandated to report adverse events, and required to comply with Good Manufacturing Practice regulations. The Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010 is intended to fund all DSHEA regulatory provisions and therefore rebut the argument by supplement opponents that the supplement industry is not really regulated due to a lack of funding.
Will this work as intended? No one can say for sure. It is possible that the FDA will misuse the funds to persecute supplements. On the other hand, this funding means that, for the first time, some FDA employees will see their jobs as being funded by supplements and likely to disappear if supplements disappear. Perhaps that will work to the advantage of natural health. Only time will tell. In the meantime, the bill will effectively rebut those who keep claiming, falsely, that supplements are unregulated.
Important note: the bill is likely to include some provisions drafted by Senator John McCain (R-AZ). McCain might even end up as a bill sponsor. But this does not worry us. One of the two McCain provisions requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to notify the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) if a new supplement ( so-called New Dietary Ingredient or NDI) may contain anabolic steroids. This is not an objectionable provision.
The second McCain provision that may be included in the bill will attempt to clarify the New Dietary Ingredient Process. This is the process whereby supplement manufacturers may petition the FDA to sell substances not sold prior to 1994, the year DSHEA passed. This is a very sensitive area for natural health supporters because of the recent tendency of drug companies to try to convert supplements not sold prior to 1994 into exclusive prescription drugs. We are confident that any provision agreed to by Senators Harkin and Hatch will protect natural health and supplements. But we will have to wait for the particular language. We will report back to you as soon as we have more particulars.
I’m reminded of the federal takeover of organics. The result was that federal regulations, fees and charges drove the small grower from the market, thus beginning the CSA effort. Organic may still mean something, but I’m not sure what.
Supplements need some kind of regulatory control, but what group or government entity can be trusted not to act in favor of big pharma? This has been a long time coming, and I hope it won’t result in endless, costly paperwork and bureaucratic meddling that will drive the smaller companies from the market, leaving a few behind that will be nice lap dogs for big pharma and the feds. If this happens, then local herbalists may well start supplying the need on a small scale, perhaps working along with CSA’s. We’ll see.
If you all have any influence with Senators Hatch and Harkin, is there any way that you can ask them to include HR 4913, the Free Speech About Science Act, and HR 3394, the Freedom of Health Speech Act, and HR 3395, the Health Freedom Act, into this legislation?
Thank you for keeping us informed! It is greatly appreciated!
Please stay on top of this. Were it not for supplements I would have been dead in my early 30’s. Will soon be 77 and still take the supplements that saved my life.
Dietary supplement should be left alone.
The FDA should be eliminated it is a useless organization that has failed to protect consumers from deadly drugs that they themselves gave their blessing. They are more concerned about attacking Cheerios and Cheeries. this organization is a joke.
I have a suggestion about this:
Why not push for language REQUIRING the FDA to use the new funds as intended, to enforce DSHEA, and to keep public records of exactly how this is accomplished?!
Congressional oversight can also be included.
Thanks, Alliance for Health, in keeping us updated about this bill! I will support it IF it is something that will help protect the availablity of our whole food supplements and not end up funding the FDA to further abuse natural supplements. The pharmacuetical synthetic supplements are never in any beaurocratic harm — it’s the all natural whole foods supplements the FDA will attack instead.
This year has been the year for major changes–brought upon us by the Democratic party. They should go one step further and make some major anti-greed changes in the pharmaceutical industry and FDA — now that would be REAL change!
Thank you SO much for watching these developments and keeping us abreast of them!
I am assuming that John McCains bill was thrown out?