X-Message-Number: 492.7
From: Saul Kent
Subject: Orange County Register commentary on FDA

	The Orange County Register
	    Wed. Aug. 7, 1991

Health fascism

During the 1970s the Food and Drug Administration moved to ban many types
or quantities of vitamins.  A coalition of deregulationists and health
enthusiasts formed to defeat that new grab for power and won.  You can
still buy an array of vitamins.

But government bureaucrats never rest in their quest for power.  New FDA
Commissioner David Kessler has begun a new round of empire building,
including new controls on how food is labeled.  He has already prevented
attempts by private groups, such as the American Heart Association, to
establish private food labeling systems.

Now something even more dangerous than Dr. Kessler's power grab is on the
agenda.  Rep. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles, chairman of the health and
environment subcommittee, is spearheading the push for HR 2597, the Food,
Drug, Cosmetic, and Devices Enforcement Amendments of 1991.  The bill
would give Dr. Kessler's FDA even more oppressive powers.  FDA agents would
get the power to eavesdrop on companies or videotape activities without a
warrant.  This would violate the companies' Fourth Amendment right to
protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

During an inspection, FDA agents could demand to see all records, trade
secrets, and formulas.  Again, no proof of a crime need be presented before
the search.  How many US companies would simply refuse to risk letting their
competitors see their trade secrets and move to Mexico or some other foreign
country?

Without a hearing the FDA could ban a product for 30 days or order its
recall.  What business could survive a 30-day ban?  The FDA could also slap
on civil penalties up to $1 million for a company or $250,000 per person.
That would be for every product.  A food company that made five "unapproved"
products could be fined $5 million.

Such vast new powers amount to health fascism.  Rep. Norman F. Lent of
New York warned that "this legislation would put in force the sort of
investigatory procedures that [Soviet President Mikhail] Gorbachev is now
trying to phase out in the Soviet Union."  He added some legislative history:
"[D]uring the 89th Congress in 1965, the Senate held three days of hearings on
the use of tape recorders and other electronic surveillance equipment by FDA
inspectors.  Shortly thereafter, the FDA adopted a policy against any use of
tape recorders during inspections."

Rep. William Dannemeyer of Fullerton charged that HR 2597 would give the FDA
the "unilateral authority to be both the prosecutor and the issuer of a
warrant for taking property from a private citizen in this country.  That's
not America.  That's a police state."  That just about sums it up.

The FDA is an agency out of control.  It needs to be reined in - better yet,
abolished.  It should never be given more power.  HR 2597 should be defeated.

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