March 8, 2010

Sen. Hatch Reaches Out to Sen. McCain – S. 3002 Still Supported and on Track

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has reached out to Senator McCain (R-AZ) last Thursday asking that he withdraw his support from certain provisions of The Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010, S. 3002.

In a letter written from Sen. Hatch to Sen. McCain, Mr. Hatch says “I am pleased that you understand my serious concerns with your bill. Also, I want to thank you for agreeing to withdraw your support for the provisions of S. 3002 that I believe would do great harm to the dietary supplement industry and work with me on solutions that will truly help dietary supplement consumers without injuring this important industry.” To view a pdf of the letter from Senator Hatch to Senator McCain, click here.

While some websites are reporting that this means the bill is now dead, it is not. In a phone call with a staffer from the Washington D.C. office, Vitamin-Freedom.org has confirmed that Senator McCain has not withdrawn his support for the bill as a whole – only that he is willing to work with Senator Hatch on parts he may have issue with.

Presumably, this will mainly concern the heavy bureaucracy and reporting requirements the bill would impose. Sen. Hatch says, “I’m counting on you working with me to make sure this important industry does not fall prey to over-regulatory regimes and mounds of costly government bureaucracy.” However, it does not seem to indicate any changes will be coming to the other, more serious, aspects of Sen. McCain’s bill.

As you may recall, Senator Orrin Hatch was the author of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). This bill has been introduced in response to the 1990’s FDA attack on vitamins triggered by a prospect of controlling many health problems with non-patentable natural solutions according to Dr Rath’s discoveries and other scientific research. That attack generated an unprecedented public outcry and political action of millions of the vitamin consumers in America. The DSHEA legislation has been instrumental in supporting the growth of the Dietary Supplement industry and unprecedented progress in natural health research than any other single piece of legislation, ever. All these and a real perspective of finalizing the restructuring of a health care with its focus on disease prevention and cost effective therapies threaten the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. The McCain S. 3002 bill is another attempt of the pharmaceutical lobby to eliminate our health freedom and curtail scientific progress in natural health.

So keep in mind that although Senator McCain is expressing his willingness to negotiate on some aspects of his bill, he is not by any means abandoning it. This bill is still supported by Senator McCain, and we can expect to see it advance out of committee in the coming months.

As always, we encourage you to contact your congressional representative to let them know how you feel about keeping your free access to dietary supplements. In the meantime, we will stay on top of this issue, and keep you updated as the story develops.