The Senator has been trying to sneak his supplement attack into an end-of-the-year government funding bill. Will he succeed? Action Alert!
ANH-USA has been keeping a close watch on Senator Dick Durbin’s (D-IL) efforts to impose additional regulations on dietary supplements that would threaten our access to important products. Over the course of this year, he has been trying to add his anti-supplement policy to larger pieces of must-pass legislation, because it is evident that it lacks the support to pass on its own merits. So far, with your determined activism, we’ve been able to block his efforts.
Congressional leaders have just released the language of the omnibus legislative package—the massive bill to fund the federal government into next year—and Sen. Durbin’s anti-supplement policy has not been included!
This is incredible news and a testament to your continued advocacy to protect dietary supplements from these restrictions. Though we’re very optimistic of the final outcome, it’s not a done deal yet. Congress still needs to approve the bill, and last-minute changes can always happen. If, for some reason, Congress does not approve the bill, another continuing resolution could be passed, opening another door for Sen. Durbin to move his disastrous supplement policy. For these reasons, we need to keep up the pressure until Congress approves the bill without Sen. Durbin’s policy.
It’s been a whack-a-mole type of year trying to stymy Sen. Durbin’s anti-supplement policy. Previously he tried to attach it to the must-pass bill to reauthorize FDA drug user fees, and he’s been trying similar stunts throughout much of the second half of this year. With your help, ANH-USA has sent hundreds of thousands of grassroots messages to Congress opposing this policy, and so far, Sen. Durbin has not been successful in his efforts.
But the fight is not over. In addressing his failure to get it done in this Congress, Senator Durbin vowed to continue pursuing his anti-supplement policy in the future: “I’ve pushed in every Congress I’ve served in, and I will continue.” We will be ready in 2023 to protect your supplements and defeat Sen. Durbin again.
Sen. Durbin’s mandatory listing legislation would add regulations to supplements that would increase prices for consumers and decrease available options, making it easy for the FDA to eliminate supplements that compete with the drugs that provide significant funding for the Agency. We’ve argued that mandatory product registration is a prelude to eliminating high-dose dietary supplements, as the European Union is in the process of doing, and throttling innovation in the supplement sector that delivers American consumers a diverse array of cutting-edge products that support health.
Action Alert! Write to Congress and tell them to oppose mandatory product listing for supplements. Please send your message immediately.
