“Without paying for this bill, at best we are just passing it for a press release, and at worse, we shackle the FDA with unfunded mandates,” Coburn said in a document published on his website on Wednesday.
Supporters of the Food Safety Modernization Act have been pushing to get the bill on the Senate’s agenda as soon as possible, particularly in the wake of the nationwide egg recall that has sickened at least 1,500 people. They claim that the bill is necessary to strengthen the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), giving it authority to order recalls, and requiring better recordkeeping from food manufacturing facilities.
Coburn’s objection to the bill means that its passage remains uncertain.
He said that lack of regulatory oversight is not the problem with the US food safety system, but rather “overlapping and duplicative inspections” and “ineffective coordination” between agencies. Coburn does agree that the system needs attention, but said that the cost of the bill could lead the FDA to cut corners in its oversight of drugs and devices due to limited resources.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that measures detailed in the bill would cost $1.4bn over five years.
A companion bill that passed the House in July last year – the Food Safety Enhancement Act – did address funding. It originally proposed a fee of $1,000 per facility to cover the cost of increased inspections, but that amount was revised to $500 per facility after assertions that such fees could prove burdensome for smaller manufacturers. However, the Senate version has not specified fees.
Both the House and Senate versions of the bill have attracted broad support from the food and beverage industry, which has been hit by a series of foodborne illness outbreaks and product recalls due to tainted ingredients. The bill was introduced after salmonella-tainted peanut products resulted in more than 700 illnesses, nine deaths and one of the largest product recalls in US history.