Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has announced he will not seek re-election next year, bringing a decades-long Congressional career to a close.
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First elected to the House in 1982 and then to the Senate in 1997, Sen. Durbin has been involved in a wide range of legislative issues. But for advocates of natural health, his legacy is marked by persistent efforts to clamp down on dietary supplements.
A long-time critic of the supplement industry, Sen. Durbin repeatedly pushed to regulate supplements more like pharmaceutical drugs. Chief among these efforts was his proposed “hit list” of supplements—a measure that would have empowered the FDA to ban products from store shelves. Despite introducing this legislation multiple times over the last decade, it consistently failed to gain traction on its own. Instead, Sen. Durbin and his allies resorted to attaching it to massive, must-pass spending bills—counting on the public not to notice.
But thanks to you—our passionate and vigilant supporters—we noticed. And we pushed back. Your thousands of messages to Congress helped defeat these efforts every time. A highlight: in 2012, we generated a staggering 90,000 messages in less than 24 hours to defeat his initiative.
Make no mistake: the battle isn’t over. As the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum. With Sen. Durbin stepping down, others may step up to take his place in opposing supplement access. But history shows that when we unite and speak out, we win.
Bon voyage, Senator Durbin. We acknowledge your years of public service—but we won’t miss your war on supplements.
