A Politico investigation concludes that, “The Obama administration and Congress have all but squandered an opportunity to give the anemic Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for the safety of 80 percent of the food supply, a level of oversight the public has long assumed it already had.” Five years after passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which envisioned a system of prevention rather than reaction to food-borne illness, “not one of the sweeping new rules has been implemented and funding is more than $276 million behind where it needs to be. A law that could have been legacy-defining for President Barack Obama instead represents a startling example of a broad and bipartisan policy initiative stymied by politics and the neglect of some of its strongest proponents.”
Reporter Helena Bottemiller Evich writes, “The breakdown of food-safety reform is also a reminder of how quickly momentum can be lost without leadership.” The White House “sat on key regulations for months and made only halfhearted attempts to fund the law …. Congress, too, bears blame.” Lawmakers have provided less than half of the funding that the FDA says it needs to enforce FMSA. Politico says it interviewed dozens of former government officials, industry leaders and consumer advocates for the series.