Your Voice Is Heard In The Senate – Let’s Redouble Our Efforts To Keep Waxman’s Anti-Supplement FTC Language Out of The Senate Bill!
May 11, 2010
Two weeks ago we told you about a “sneak” anti-supplement provision (Section 4901) slipped at the last moment into the House Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 4173). This “below the radar” provision is intentionally written in unintelligible legalese that can barely be deciphered by a legislative or legal expert (here is the actual language if you want to try to decipher it yourself). Reduced to understandable language, this section gives the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) broad new rulemaking and enforcement authority.
Although this proposed new FTC authority can be used against a wide variety of industries, it particularly threatens the dietary supplement industry and consumer access to dietary supplements. Why? Because the FTC has adopted a destructive policy toward supplement companies that presently can only be applied to those few companies signing FTC consent agreements. If the new provision becomes law, the FTC could and almost certainly would apply its policy to all supplement companies. The likely result is that many supplements and supplement companies would disappear. (More information about this is available in our alert.)
Drug companies would of course be delighted to see supplement companies put out of business by harsh FTC requirements. They know that supplements are their chief potential competition, are often more effective than drugs, are often less toxic, and are always far, far less expensive.
Supplements are already regulated by the FDA under DSHEA. If the Waxman provision becomes law, the FTC will gain the power to override the limited protections for supplements that already exist under DSHEA. The FDA would still have to respect DSHEA, but the FTC would be under no such constraint.
Many thousands of you have taken action though our website and requested your Senators not to include Waxman’s dangerous FTC power expansion measure in the Senate version of the Wall Street Reform bill. We are pleased to report that the Senate is listening.
The Senate’s Restoring American Fiscal Stability Act of 2010 (S.3217) is moving its way though the chamber right now. Just as we expected, an effort was made by Senator Rockefeller to convince Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) to include Waxman’s FTC provision into the bill before it came to the floor as part of the “managers amendment.” If this had succeeded, the battle would have been over. But we headed this off by making the provision too “controversial”, as Senator Dodd reportedly said.
Still, the fight isn’t over. The bill is on the Senate floor and a senator could still offer the now controversial FTC expansion measure as a floor amendment, although a floor amendment would be much easier to defeat.
If you haven’t already done so, please TAKE ACTION on our alert and be sure to forward the link to your friends and family. The alert will also provide you with more information about the provision and why it is so toxic for supplements.
Sir: Shame on all of you trying to sell us out. Is big pharma a big contributer to your pockets? Big pharma depletes MY pockets. And one very important thing to take back to your “buddies” , there are MORE senior citizens going to the EMERGENCY ROOM FOR TAKING PHARMACEUTICALS THAN THERE ARE TAKING VITAMINS AND SUPPLEMENTS. IT IS ABOUT TIME CONGRESS PUTS THEIR THINKING CAPS ON (USE COMMON SENSE)
Waxman is bought off by big pharma and he needs to go! Other reps like him need the boot too! They don’t care about “We the People”; they only care about the kick-backs lining their pockets.
Do not take supplement rights away. This is America. We have the right to choose what type of healthcare we choose to use for ourselves and our families.
ALL of this crap comes from PROGRESSIVES, who control the democrat party and are currently fighting to keep control of the republican party from Tea Party activists. I am registered republican only to have a chance to keep some of our freedoms alive, not to support the “party”. All Americans need to unite on the Constitution, support State governments and the application of the 10th amendment. We have been sold down the river on issue after issue, and divided on purpose to keep these corrupt politicians in office. I would like to invite democrat voters to start cleaning their party of their government control freaks as we have started to do in the republican party. It’s not easy.
If the Waxman amendment is a good thing, why was it attached to a totally unrelated bill, at the last moment? The fact that this sort of thing is done all the time in Washington is only an excuse for bad behavior, not a good reason to do it. We do not need or want any more government interference in our lives. Leave supplements alone and get on with the real business you were sent to do: protect the American people and defend the constitution. Neither is being done in Washington now. Government IS THE PROBLEM, not the solution. Please work to defeat this bad bill, or at least kill the Waxman amendment.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely, Lowell E Berg
Do not include the anti supplements language in the bill.
I am getting do damn tired of the government aka politicians always trying to force legislation that denies me my freedom to choose for my own health. STAY OUT of supplements!!!!! Can it be made any more clear to you aholes???? Just because you are getting money from special interests for your “work” doesn’t give you the right to take away my freedom of choice. Go find something much more worthy of the money you are being paid by taxpayers for your job. There are many MUCH MORE worthy causes that don’t include taking away America’s freedom.
As long as western medicine’s prices continue to soar into the stratosphere, consumers will continue to look for less expensive alternatives with greater or equal efficacy. It’s not only the nature of the market; it’s human nature. Yet how strange it is when some politicians trumpet the “free market,” but the moment the people act in accordance with it and vote with their wallets for alternative medicine, these same politicians try to thwart them by legislating the market in favor of the big pharmaceutical companies.
MY SON IS ALIVE TODAY BECAUSE OF THE RESEARCH OF BIOCHEMISTS OF THIS CENTURY AND PEOPLE WHO HAVE GIVEN MONEY FOR NUTRITONAL RESEARCH INCLUDING RECENT STUDIES FROM THE AMERICAN CANCER INSTITUTE RAINBOW DIET FOR CANCER. SUSAN KOLEMAN ALSO HAS STATED THAT THE ONLY WAY WE CAN GO IS TO PREVENT CANCER WITH NUTRITONAL CHOICES AND LIFESTYLE CHANGES.
IT DOES NOT REALLY REQUIRED RESEARCH IT REQUIRES COMMON SENSE AND A UNPOISENED
FOOD SUPPLY.
THE MANNATECH CORPORATION WAS DESTROYED BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL WHEN THE BIOCHEMIST WHO DISCOVERED GLYCONUTRIENTS WON THE NOBAL PRIZE. THIS IS NOT JUNK SCIENCE.
PHARMACUTICAL COMPANIES NEED TO TELL THE TRUTH REGARDING THEIR OWN RESEARCH STUDIES THAT ARE INSUFFICIENT TO PRODUCE WORTHWHILE DRUGS. SHAME ON THEM AND A CONGRESS WHO DOES NOT SUPPORT NATURAL HEALTH, ESPECIALLY WHEN SO MANY AMERICAN’S ARE CHOOSING BETWEEN FOOD OR MEDICINE BECAUSE THEIR BUDGET DO NOT
COVER BOTH AND INSURNCE COMPANIES DO NOT PAY FOR NATURL MEDICINE OR THERAPY.
SHAME ON THEM AND THE AFDA IF THEY THINGK WALNUTS AND CHERRIES ARE BAD….THEY MUST BE OFF THEIR NUTS.
Please reconsider seeing this abomination through.People such as myself,depend on various holistic approaches to health.I do not want to be a slave to medications that are full of vile,toxic chemicals.Thank you.
Please remove the anti-supplement language that Rep. Waxman put into the consumer protection bill.
Drug companies are out for the buck and have proven they have no ethics. Tell Waxman to retire. America wants new people not bought and paid for relics!
Please remove the backhanded anti-supplement language that slippery Rep. Waxman put into the consumer protection bill.
Thank you for all that you are doing!
Any language that restricts my ability to choose the manner in which I approach my own health issues is further fodder for all of us to re-elect no one. do the job you were sent there to do and quit sucking up to companies that want to poison us with their garbage.
How dare you try to take control leaving out small helpless children with Autism caused by a Government without a conscious for adding heavy metals to brains in vaccines….what stupidity
and more heavy metals our in the environment in the ground, water and air; including the effects of nuclear testing underground and in the air. These toxic effects are accumulating in the body weakening immune systems and brain function of our youth who all ready have a lessor life span then their parents.
Why ignore the biochemists who have own the Nobel Prizes for their discovery about the human cells and what caues Cancer and Cure Cancers……high all natural food supplement dosages is what heals Cancer…..Supplements is the answer and holistic products to cleanse the body systems. I have been using holistic products and therapies for about 50 years and getting people well from Cancer, Autisim, Ms and restoring brain function to many by recommending quality
food sources produced by organic pesticide free products and from around the world….you will be ruining a global market, too and into countries we have financed to spark their economy and to undo some of the effects of the loss of our rain forrests.
The Mannatech Corporation who introduced glyconutrients from biochemistry science and 25 years of research has been targeted by The Attorney General for getting people consistantly well and even death bed turn around experiences. This is after bringing this information to Congress and as a result Ambrostose was placed in The Physcian’s Desk References.
It is Pharmacutical Companies who are regulating to get their “Phoney” all natural supplements sold in corner markets and drug stores and gas stations that will cause heart attacks and the accumulation of calcium in the joints and also harm kidney’s.
STOP THIS OBVIOUS PLAN TO PROSPER PHARMACUTICAL COMPANY’S MONEY MAKING IDEAS
AND OF COURSE SHARE THE PROFIT WITH THE MEDICAL PROFESSION, TOO.
RECALL HENRY WAXMAN FOR COVERT ACTIONS AGAINST AMERICAN VOTERS!
Please vote AGAINST the Waxman Vitamin Tax bill coming up in the Senate. This is sneaky, and the American public does NOT want this to happen. You are supposed to be a government OF THE PEOPLE, not OF YOURSELVES, PLEASE LISTEN TO US, DO NOT VOTE FOR THIS BILL.
Thank you,
Anne Pertuset
I thought this was the USA and freedom. Noboby has the right to regulate what vitamins I take or my family. Pharma companies are scared, they know natural suppliments work, someone needs to regulate them and put them out of business for making people sick.
Hi as I do believe we should try all the best to separate FDA in a first place saying those days are gone and FDA simply cannot manage food and drug under one umbrella. Food is food it is natural, simple and dont need any scientific researches in order to provide chemical free, iiradiation free, colours, preservatives and all sorts of artificial Es free. The more natural food and food supplements we provide to our customers the less we harm them. Science can be involved in food industry only to find out the mineral and vitamin contents. As drug companies have plenty to investigate, research and prove us that the drug they created is safe.
It is obvious that under the hope of NEW WORLD ORDER the rich want to owe the main resources in the world and make us totally dependent slaves without much health left. HOW anyone can let them to do so when majority of public 99% occupied by working hard in believe there is alright. PLEASE WORK HARD to convince Senate that FOOD and DRUG should stay on the different side of the ocean!
Please do not to include Waxman’s dangerous FTC power expansion measure in the Senate version of the Wall Street Reform bill. In fact I think the practice of tacking things onto unrelated bills should be stopped immediately. Sneaks should only be allowed in football games. It is not honest.
WE’RE GETTING VERY TIRED OF THIS, MR WAXMAN.
WHY DO WE ALWAYS HAVE TO KEEP FIGHTING TO KEEP THE GOVERNMENT HANDS OFF OUR RIGHT TO TAKE VITAMINS. STOP IT.
WE’RE GETTING VERY TIRED OF THIS, MR WAXMAN.
WHY DO WE ALWAYS HAVE TO KEEP FIGHTING TO KEEP THE GOVERNMENT HANDS OFF OUR RIGHT TO TAKE VITAMINS. STOP IT.
We do not need any more legislation against supplements! Stop pandering to the drug companies, who would love to put healthy supplements out of business. Thank you.
i am against the anti-supplement provision (Section 4901) slipped at the last moment into the House Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 4173)
Please keep Senator Waxman’s language that would destroy the supplement industry out of the bill.
LEAVE OUR SUPPLEMENTS AND VITAMINS, MINERALS ALONE.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU. IF THE FOOD WE EAT DOES NOT CONTAIN THESE ESSENTIAL
WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO PURCHASE THESE SUPPLEMENTS AND MAKE OUR SELVES HEALTHIER
AND LIVE LONG. I GUESS YOU DO NOT WANT THAT . I AM RETIRED/DISABLED FROM WORKING MY JOB AND THESE WORK. ALL THE FDA PHARMA DRUGS MAKE ME FAT, SICK,
SLEEPY, WEEPY, DEPRESSED. I TRIED FOR 5 YEARS WITH PHARMA AND IT DOES NOT WORK.
GET WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD.
RAVEN IN UTAH
it’s not bad enough that huge drug companies are making a fortune on drugs…..
please do whatever you can to keep them away from the supplements market…
HR 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act has a provision (Section 4901) that gives the FTC broad powers for rulemaking and enforcement that can be used against a wide variety of industries. It particularly threatens consumer access to vitamins and dietary supplements that we depend upon for our healthe and well being. Under this law, the FTC could disrespect DSEA, our current protective law for freedom to buy dietary supplements.
Take out Section 4901 of this bill to protect our health.
I do not want Mr. Waxman’s bill to pass! I would prefer to keep my freedom to purchase the vitamin supplements that I want without having the FTC breathing down my neck.
Leave our supplements alone!
Stop the sneak tactics !
Leave our supplements alone !
This is highly unethical. It reflects very poorly on Congress members who draft/support this, but above all else the impact on human wellbeing is actually criminal. Controlling free choice is unconstitutional, not just illegal. Anybody who votes for this is asking to be replaced in office and to retire.
PS I want to add:
A) We pay you to uphold, defend and protect the Constution
B) We do *not* pay you to infringe on our rights in a criminal way that affects human health and free choice, that would be ludicrous
C) People depend on naturopathic substances if they cannot tolerate mainstream medication or if they simply want to choose otherwise.
The 14th amendment states:
“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Representatives and Senators are serving the State as well as the Country. To curtail the availability of naturopathic substances is an infringement on the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, as well as property.
We are in an economic depression, yet Congress is trying to pass a bill which will break an entire industry and put people out of jobs. Nice sign of empathetic concern for others, eh? Some people depend on naturopathics for maintenance of health and even for—god forbid, how dare we say it—-cure. Lack of empathy for others is not a normal state of affairs, and those lacking it do not belong walking the streets, let alone in public office. I leave it up to the general public to question whether or not you are mentally fit to serve in public office. If you don’t care about economic survival and health survival, the answer is that you probably are not.
With the thousands of injuries and deaths that occur every year as a result of conventional health care and drugs, one would think that our legislators such as Henry Waxman would have more worthwhile regulatory work to keep themselves than to continually go after the alternative health and supplement industry. It is either ignorance or lobbyist pac money that keep someone like Henry Waxman continually finding a way to deprive people of their right to alternative and safe methods of treatment with supplements and herbs. In today’s world there is a place for both conventional and natural supplements and herbs. People are finding profound life saving value in their access and use. The industry is already sufficiently regulated. Let’s be ever vigilant and ban together to prevent those who would deny us access to supplements and herbs.
Please remove the anti-supplement language that Rep. Waxman put into the consumer protection bill.
Good luck, Senator Waxman, in your efforts to make our food safer!!!!
America is witnessing the encroachment of government into every possible aspect and avenue of access into our daily lives so as to increase it’s take of our resources and restriction of our liberties. Both are anthema to government, which seeks to eventually make thralls of all. Every year of election we put in new blood expecting thngs now to finally get better. Wake up, people! It never gets better. We have to throw out all the bums. We have to get folks in who will scrub the house clean and start from a new constitution based not upon bills and fillibusters and pork-barrel riders, but clear, consistent and briefly understandable statutes, amended only by making simpler and more inclusive of justice and less intrusive of totalitarianism.
We live in one of the most morally bankrupt countries on the face of the earth.
The US used to be the leader of human rights but the tables have turned.
Men in power lack a fear of God. But this is not the world that God intended
thats why it has to come to an end and the ungodly will be destroyed forever so that
the new earth He creates will have no corruption at all. The sooner the better. The creation
is groaning. Its waiting for the redemption of the sons of God.
You guys are fluoridating our water….it’s poison. Now you want to protect us from supplements—no thanks. Keep Waxman’s bill to regulate supplements OUT.
We are sick of all your regulation and frankly the FDA is a total failure. Poison food from China and Mexico should be your main concern….along with all of the drugs that get fast tracked through the FDA which are killing people daily.
Don’t let this bill suffer by allowing this ‘crap’ to remain, Waxman’s sneaky rider/amendment. In what way does this make sense to be there, do you not find the language involved somewhat suspicious? Why are you not protecting us from this sort of surreptitious usurpation of our personal choice and freedoms, based on no valid argument? Where is the discussion and the disclosure regarding substantiating facts to justify this? In legislation that is related!
Toss this sh*t out! If you believe that this is in our interest, you are mistaken, you are not protecting US, but will be pandering to the big pharmaceutical corporations, isn’t it time to stop?
The US Senate has become nothing short of corrupt! When will you STOP serving corporate America at the expence of the public’s health and our freedoms!
KEEP WAXMAN’S ANTI-SUPPLEMENT FTC LANGUAGE OUT OF THE SENATE BILL.(SECTION 4901)
SECRETLY PUT INTO CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT.H.R.4173.
WE ARE TIRED OF ALL THIS BACK DOOR-ILLEGAL CRAP GOING ON-IN WASHINGTON AND TIME TO S T O P IT!!! ALL ANY ONE UP THERE IS LOOKING FOR IS: WHAT IS IN THIS FOR ME -PERKS, PORK AND POWER TO PLEASE ALL THE LOBBYIST AND YOURSELF.
WE ARE SO ( O V E R ) ALL OF YOU -IT IS TIME TO LOOK FOR ANOTHER JOB AND DON’T SAY YOU WEREN’T WARNED!!!!!!!!
Please do your best to assure that all attacks against this bill are rejected i’m sure you will do the right thing and stand up!!!
We the people want freedom to choose and use safe, healthy, alternative herbal supplements, otherwise known as God’s medicine. Tell the greedy, corrupt pharmaceuticals and their lackeys in government to learn about democracy and to keep their fascism to themselves and out of our government.
Keep the anti-supplement bill out of the Wall Street Reform Bill.
Plese Keep Waxman’s Anti-Supplement FTC Language Out of The Senate Bill.
Thankyou
Don Keller
When are you peoole in Congress going to get your act straight and really represent the American people?
I request that the US Senate keep out the sneaky authorization for the FTC to regulate food supplements.. Vitamins should not be regulated by the FTC. Vitamins are food.
I totally oppose Waxman’s Bill Section 4901 Anti Supplement Initiative.
This is a horrible crime against the health of American people and a violation of our rights and freedom as United States Citizens to make decisions regarding our health.
This bill favors the Big Pharmaceutical companies and does not consider the basic principles upon which our country has been built.
Please do not vote for this bill.
America is about freedom and our access to dietary supplements is part of that freedom. If those rights ever got taken away, we are no longer America.
THERE IS ONLY ONE THING LEFT TO DO
RECALL HENRY WAXMAN FOR COVERT SNEAKY ACTIONS!!
SEND A FAX TO HIS OFFICE…..1-323-655-0502
FAX THE WHITE HOUSE 1-202-456-2461
PLEASE ENJOY ME ON WELLNESS ANSWERS.ORG
OPPS
THAT IS PLEASE JOIN ME ON WELLNESSANSWERS.ORG FOR MORE POLITICAL ACTIONS.
Please stand up for our rights to take our vitamin supplements.
Thank you very much for your assistance.
Florence Scheuchenzuber
Natural medicine is the only thing that I have ever found to bring health and healing and now you want to take it away. Just look at the stats. How many deaths from alternative medicine compared to the deaths from drugs that only mame and put a band aid for awhile until another drug is needed to help what the last drug caused. It goes on and on until death sets in. I’m not saying that there is not a need for allopathic medicine. I’m just saying that alternative saved lives and makes people healthy. We certainly need hospitals and doctors also.
I choose not to use drugs to treat my body. Please respect my Spiritual beliefs that God designed my body to heal its self if fed properly. I also respect modern medicine .Let me choose how I want to care for my body.