S.830 - FYI - What you need to know
From: TashiDelay@aol.com |
Go to the Thomas database at the library of congress via http://thomas.loc.gov/ go to "bill summary and status" enter S.830 as search word. There you will find two versions of the bill, the one reported on the floor, and the marked up version as they work on it. They haven't removed the parts calling for harmonization.It is imperative that we lobby the Senate Labor Committee on this. Jeffords is the chairman. For those who may have missed my alert, I'm including it here, followed by additional information (email addresses) on how to contact the Labor Committee
Write to the Senate Labor Committee and ask the Senators to request that the chairman not report S.830 out of committee. The address for the Senate labor committee is:
Senate Labor Committee
Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington DC, 20510
Senator Harkin must especially be called on this because he intends to attach the Access to Medical Treatment Act to this legislation and it would be _TRAGIC_ if we shot ourselves in the foot by pushing it through with a trojan horse of this sort in it!
One offending section is Sec. 202 "Sense of the Committee regarding mutual recognition agreements and global harmonization efforts."
This section, which can be found at the url listed above, states:
"It is the sense of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate that--
(2) the Secretary of Health and Human Services should regularly participate in meetings with representatives of other foreign governments to discuss and reach agreement on methods and approaches to harmonize regulatory requirements; and
(3) the Office of International Relations of the Department of Health and Human Services (as established under section 803 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 USC 383)should have the responsibility of ensuring that the process of harmonizing international regulatory requirements is continuous.
Americans need to be aware of what is happening in the European Union right now with regards to the "Green Paper" on which a comments period ends at the end of September. The Green Paper is pushing for stringent regulations on dietary supplements, to reduce available dosage limits to very low doses such as 10 mg for B6. On the same day that the draft copy of the Green Paper became availabe in England, the media launched a propaganda campaign against vitamin B-6 stating that doses above 10 mg put people at risk of peripheral neuropathy, which is patently absurd. The only two countries in Europe holding out against the Green Paper are the UK and Holland. I hope American consumers can see from this emerging trend that we MUST remove the section below from S.830.
Please call Senator Jeffords, the sponsor of the bill at 202-224-5141, fax 202-228-0338, Vermont@JEFFORDS.SENATE.GOV Also call the Senate Labor Committee, and your own Senators and Congressment regarding this, otherwise, we will have BIG PROBLEMS. (See list of email addresses below):
Committe on Labor and Human Resources
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5375
Capitol switchboard: 202-224-3121
Committee's web home page:
http://www.senate.gov/committee/labor.html
Committee members and E-Mail addresses are:
Republicans
James M. Jeffords, Vermont vermont@jeffords.senate.gov
Dan Coats, Indiana (no address as of 4/22/97)
Judd Gregg, New Hampshire mailbox@gregg.senate.gov
William Frist, Tennessee senator_frist@frist.senate.gov
Mike DeWine, Ohio senator_dewine@dewine.senate.gov
Mike Enzi, Wyoming senator@enzi.senate.gov
Tim Hutchinson, Arkansas senator.hutchinson@hutchinson.senate.gov
Susan Collins, Maine senator@collins.senate.gov
John Warner, Virginia senator@warner.senate.gov
Mitch McConnell, Kentucky senator@mcconnell.senate.gov
Democrats
Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts senator@kennedy.senate.gov
Chistopher J. Dodd, Connecticut sen_dodd@dodd.senate.gov
Tom Harkin, Iowa tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov
Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland senator@mikulski.senate.gov
Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov
Paul Wellstone, Minnesota senator@wellstone.senate.gov
Patty Murray, Washington senator_murray@murray.senate.gov
Jack Reed, Rhode Island (no address as of 7/8/97)
For member inquiries:
Office of Senator (Name)
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
For member e-mail access:
http://www.senate.gov/senator/membmail.html#[enter first letter of the senator's state, e.g., "a" for Arkansas]
For Committee inquiries:
(Name of Committee)
United states Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Acupuncture.com |