Senate Proceeding on Oct 22nd, 2009 :: 0:25:05 to 0:34:50
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0:25:02 to 0:25:22( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: care reform that america's seniors gar floor. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: thank you very much, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent to spk for up to 10 minutes. the presiding officer: witht objection. ms. klobuchar: mr. president, today the senate health, education, labor, and pensions committee is holding a hearing

0:25:05 to 0:34:50( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Amy Klobuchar

0:25:23 to 0:25:43( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: to discuss the need to reform our nation's outdated, underfunded, and overwhelmed food safety system. the focus, of course, in washington right now is on health care, and i truly believe we need to get a health care reform bill passed, and i will speak at another time about medicare costs, which the

0:25:44 to 0:26:04( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: republican leader just addressed. but it is my view that if we don't do anything to reform medicare, we all know it's going in the red by 2017. we all know that if you continue the path that we're going down and we don't bring higher qual at lower cost, that's not good nor anyone, certainly not our seniors. so just based on my health care

0:26:05 to 0:26:25( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: experience in my state, what my state needs, we want to have that high-quality, low-cost focus and that's what we're working to do in bill. but today i'm here to talk about the health of our food safety system. the heang today and recent actions by the administration are good steps forward to ensure the safety of our food supply,

0:26:26 to 0:26:49( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: but more must be done. the time to act is now. now, why is the time to act now? well, look what's been going on. in the past few months, the recalls of peanut products, spinach and cookie dough have shaken our confidence and trust in the food that we eat according to the centers for diase control, foodborne

0:26:50 to 0:27:12( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: disease causes about 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the united states each year. last fall hundreds of people across the country fell ill to salmonella.

0:27:13 to 0:27:34( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: it w traced to a peanut butter plant in georgia. people died in my home state of minnesota. the first responsibility of government, mr. president, is to protect its citizens. as members of congress, we must act quickly to pass tough, new laws to strengthen our food system, to ensure the health and safety of the american people.

0:27:35 to 0:27:58( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: americans spend more than $1 trillion on food every year. and when families go to the grocery store, out to eat, or wherever they're going to get a bite to eat, they shouldn't have to worry about getting sick from the food they i have joined with a bipartisan group of senators to introduce the food safety modernization

0:27:59 to 0:28:19( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: ablght modernizationact of 200 which would overhaul the federal government's food state of program. other cosponsors including dick dur begin, judd gregg, chris dodd, lamar alexander and saxby chambliss. i want to thank senator durbin for his long-term leadership on this issue, particularly. whenever contaminated food is

0:28:20 to 0:28:40( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: allowed to reach consumers, public trust and the effectiveness of our above the is just think about it. the three people that died in minnesota -- one was an elderly woman at a nursing home. she was in perfectly good shape and she had a little piece of toast w that was it. a little piece of toast with peanut butter.

0:28:41 to 0:29:03( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: in talk to her son, i learned so much about her and what a courageous woman she was. she ate one piece of toast with peanut butter. this bill will give the food and drug administration the tools and authority for better inspections and more responsive recall s the bill will also

0:29:04 to 0:29:25( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: improve our compass i capacity to protect our food supply and allow the f.d.a. greater access to facility safety emergency. currently, the f.d.a. does not have the resources to conduct annual inspections at the more than 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses in the country. our bill reqres annual

0:29:26 to 0:29:47( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: inspections at facilities that pose the greatest risk to the american public and will go a long way toward ensuring the protection of our nation's food supply. think of it. if you have something like this -- peanut butter facility that doesn't think they'll evere inspected, no one will be looking. they don't have incentive every year to improve their food processing capabilities. they don't have that incentive.

0:29:48 to 0:30:08( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: they don't know that anyone is watching over their shoulder because they're not. this bill also takes step to improve our capacity to defect and respond to -- detect and respond to foodborne illness outbreaks. but i believe there's more to be done. that's why i along with senator

0:30:09 to 0:30:30( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: chambliss introduced the food safety rapidness act. this legislation focuses on the centers for disease control as well as state and local capabilities for responding to foodborne illnesses. the recent outbreaks demonstrates there needs to be better coordination when responding to a food safety cris. this legislation seeks to make these much-need improvements. in the case of the jalapeno

0:30:31 to 0:30:51( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: pepper outbreak last year and the peanut butter outbreak earlier this year, people had been getting sick for months before an advisory was iued. the breakthrough in identifying the sources of contamination didn't come from the centers for disease control, neither jalapeno pepper, identified at first as tomatoes, didn't come

0:30:52 to 0:31:13( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: from the centers for disease control, didn't come from the f.d.a., didn't come from the national institutes of health, the breakthrough in both outbreaks came from the work of the minnesota department of health and the minnesota department of agriculture as well as collaborative effort with the university of minnesota's school of public health. this initiative has earned a remarkable national reputation.

0:31:14 to 0:31:34( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: the food safety response act uses the exceptional work done inman as a national food saefplt how do they do this? how come someone has to get sick or die in minnesota before a national outbreak is solved? they have a team of graduate students that works together under the supervision of the university and the department of health, and they together figure out what's wrong.

0:31:35 to 0:31:56( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: they make the calls together. they're like food detectives. some people team diarrhea, but they're food detectives and they go out and they figure out what's wrong. what goes on in other states? sometimes a reporter in an individual county sits on a busy nurse's desk, they don't follow up on it for weeks and you're never able to piece together

0:31:57 to 0:32:17( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: that information that solves and figures out what is the source of the outbreak. this bill would direct the centers enhance foodborne surveillance systems to improve collection and analysis systems on foodborne systems. this includes better sharing of information among federal, state and local agencies as well as with the food industry and the public.

0:32:18 to 0:32:39( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: second, it would direct the centers for disease control to work with state-level agencies to improve foodborne illness surveillance. finally, this legislation would establish food safety centers for excellence. the goal is to set up regional food safety centers at select public health departments and higher education institutions. these collaborations would

0:32:40 to 0:33:00( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: provide increased resources, training and coordination for state and local officials. in particular, they would seek distribute food safety best practices so that other states can figure out howan we do this better so that every food outbreak doesn't need to have someone get sick or die in minnesota before it's solved. think about it, mr. president.

0:33:01 to 0:33:23( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: recent two food outbreaks only got solved in one state. we have to use that model nationally. dr. osterho epl at the iversity of minnesota is credited with the creation of the minnesota program. said the creation of regional programs pholgded on mnesota would go a long way toward providing the realtime support for outbreak investigations at

0:33:24 to 0:33:44( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: the state and local levels that is so sorely needed. at today's hearing the food marketing institute stated that the food safety response act would better coordinate foodborne illness surveillance systems and better support state laboratories and outbreak investigations with needed expertise. in minnesota, we have the

0:33:45 to 0:34:05( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: benefit of working with strong leaders in the food industry, including supervalue, hormone, general motors and schwanns. their leadership set national standas for response to foodborne outbreaks. public and private collaboration is essential to improving food safety response system. the annl costs of medical

0:34:06 to 0:34:27( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: care, lost productivity and premature deaths due to foodborne illnesses is estimated to be $44 billion. there is a lot at stake both in terms of life and money. and i believe we can do better. as a former prosecutor, mr. president, i've always believed that the first responsibility of government is to protect its citizens. when people get sick or die from contaminated food, the

0:34:28 to 0:34:50( Edit History Discussion )

Amy Klobuchar: government must take aggressive and immediate action. congress must improve the f.d.a. and bring it into the 21st century. together the food safety rapid response act and the food safety modernization act which i've introduced with senator chambliss will strengthen food safety in our country and ultimately save both lives and money. we owe it to the american people