A bad supplement policy is moving forward on multiple fronts now. This is the biggest threat to supplements in over a decade. Action Alert!
This week the Senate HELP Committee released its draft of the must-pass FDA user fee legislation, and unfortunately our greatest fear has been realized: it includes Senator Durbin’s (D-IL) mandatory product listing for dietary supplements, a policy that threatens over 41,000 supplements.
We still have the opportunity to defeat this terrible mandate, but it won’t be possible to stop unless Congress hears from as many constituents as possible that we don’t want this bad legislation that will restrict our access to supplements.
Right now, the House and Senate have separate versions of their FDA user fee bills. Up to this point, we have successfully blocked the inclusion of mandatory supplement listing in the House bill, which has just been approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Now it will go to the House floor for any last amendments and a final vote. It is imperative that our Representatives know that we don’t want any House floor amendments to add mandatory product listing to this bill.
Unfortunately, the current Senate bill does include mandatory product listing for supplements, although it is earlier in the legislative process than the House bill. The Senate bill still has to go through the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee markup, which we expect to be soon after Congress takes its Memorial week break. The HELP Committee markup will be an opportunity to amend the bill, and we are pushing for an amendment to remove dietary supplements from this unrelated drug user fee bill. If we can’t get this amendment in committee, we will push for it to happen when the bill reaches the Senate floor.
Since the House and Senate bills are unique, the final language for this must-pass FDA drug user fee legislation will have to be negotiated by a Congressional conference committee. If the Senate bill still contains mandatory product listing by the time it reaches the conference committee, it will be critical that we ensure the conference committee members know their constituents oppose this terrible proposal and it should not be included in the final bill.
These conferees, which will likely be composed primarily of members from the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate HELP Committee, will have the powerful position of negotiating the bill differences and deciding on final language. The House and Senate must vote to approve this the final bill before the expiration date on September 30, 2022, so there is no time to waste in flooding Congress with messages of opposition to mandatory product listing for supplements.
Action Alert! Write to Congress and tell them to oppose mandatory product listing for dietary supplements. Please send your message immediately.
