THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release October 2, 1997
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON FOOD SAFETY REGULATIONS
The Rose Garden
10:59 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Mr. Vice President, Secretary
Shalala, Deputy Secretary Rominger, Cathie Woteki, Dr. Friedman, all
the representatives of the groups that have helped us come to this
day.
Our government made a fundamental promise to the
American people of a bountiful and safe food supply way back at the
beginning of this century. It is a promise that we have had to renew
our commitment to periodically over the years, and a promise that
needed a lot of work when I became President. From the day I took
office, I worked very hard to honor that commitment, to make our food
supply -- the world's safest -- even safer.
In 1993, the Vice President's national performance
review recommended an overhaul of our food safety procedures so that
we could use the best scientific technology available in inspection
methods, to make sure that we had put in the best preventive controls
to keep our food supply the world's safest.
Since then, we have taken major steps. We first put in
place rigorous new safety standards for seafood, meat and poultry
products, throwing out archaic and ineffective methods of inspection
that had not been updated for nearly a century. We've required
slaughterhouses to test for deadly E. Coli and salmonella bacteria.
We've begun developing new safety standards for fruit and vegetable
juices. We've strengthened our system of guaranteeing that our
drinking water will remain safe, and improved public health
protections for pesticide uses on food. And we brought a host of
federal agencies together to boost food safety research, education
and surveillance efforts around our nation. In so doing, we're using
the world's best science to help prevent food contamination tragedies
before they happen, to make sure our supply of food is as safe as it
can be.
Today, our food supply remains the world's safest, but
we can't rest on those accomplishments. We have to do more. At the
time when Americans are eating more and more food from around the
globe, we must spare no effort to ensure the safety of our food
supply from whatever source.
Today, I want to tell you the new steps we're taking to
ensure that our fruits and vegetables, including those imported from
other countries, meet the highest health and safety standards.
First, I'm asking Congress to give the Food and Drug Administration
the power and the obligation to ban the importation of fruits,
vegetables and other foods from countries whose safety precautions do
not meet American standards. This new law would be similar to a law
that already requires the United States Department of Agriculture to
keep meet and poultry from countries with inferior food safety
systems out of our stores.
In my next budget, I will provide enough funds to ensure
that the FDA can fully implement this new legislation by dramatically
expanding its international food inspection force. With these
efforts, we can make sure that no fruits and vegetables cross our
borders, enter our ports, or reach our dinner tables without meeting
the same strict standards as those grown here in America. Our food
safety system is the strongest in the world, and that's how it's
going to stay.
I'm also directing the Secretary of Health and Human
Services and the Secretary of Agriculture to work together in close
cooperation with the agricultural community to develop the first-ever
specific safety standards for the growing, processing, shipping and
selling of fruits and vegetables. These standards will address
potential food safety problems throughout the production and
distribution system, and they'll improve the sanitation and safety
practices of all those seeking to sell produce in the United States
market.
I'm asking Secretary Shalala and Glickman to report back
to me within 90 days with a complete schedule for developing these
standards within a year. I'll also ask them to submit a
comprehensive plan to improve the monitoring of food safety programs
abroad, to help foreign countries upgrade their safety precautions
and toughen food inspections at the border.
Being a parent is perhaps the toughest job in the world.
Our parents deserve the peace of mind that comes from knowing the
food they set before their children is safe. With today's new
actions, we can help make their jobs much easier.
And, again, let me thank all of those who were involved
in this effort as I sign this order. Thank you very much.
(The order is signed.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks. (Applause.)
Q Mr. President, will you be using the line item veto
--
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me?
Q Will you be using the line item veto on any of the
appropriations bills that you've just passed -- that you've just
signed?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me say, I have received only
-- I've received one memorandum for my staff on one bill. And that
came in late last night, so I haven't read it. But I will consider
it -- as the bills come in, I will ask for a review of the potential
uses by specific bill and make judgments as we go along. I have
nothing to report at this time, because I have received only one
memorandum and I haven't read it.
Q What about the census, sir? Do you have any
concerns concerning the Commerce bill and the particular ways that
the money will be used for the census?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, my feeling is that we ought to do
the census as well as we can. I don't think this is a complicated
issue. The National Science Foundation has recommended this
statistical sampling method. The man who did President Bush's census
says that it's the only way to get the most accurate count. I just
want to do whatever the Census Bureau believes, the full-time
professionals, believe is the most accurate thing to do.
I think that's a heavy constitutional responsibility we
have, to conduct a census that is as accurate as possible based on
what the professionals say. This ought to be a professional, not a
political judgment. And that's the position I will take throughout.
Q Mr. President, did the Democratic Party send money
to the states because of federal election law restrictions?
Q Mr. President, there are fresh fruit and vegetables
producers that are saying --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, wait a minute. I'll take both of
them. Go ahead first.
Q There are fresh fruit and vegetable producers that
are saying that you're acting with this action as the world food
police and that your actions here today are unwarranted and that's
going to complicate the trade environment.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I hope it doesn't complicate the
trade environment. But, you know, it seems to me that we have no
higher responsibility than to protect the health and safety of our
citizens, and everyone who has been following all of your reporting
over the last four or five years knows that we have had continuing
challenges in food safety. We have millions of people who get sick
every year. And we're not trying to unfairly target foreign
producers of food into our market; we don't ask them to meet any
standards we don't meet. And indeed, if you look at the actions of
this administration over the last four years, when we started, I
think you can make a compelling case that we started working on
things that were problems coming out of the American market first.
So I just don't think that's right.
I don't want it to complicate the trade environment, but
I'm not interested in trade in things that will make the American
people sick.
Q Mr. President, did the Democratic National
Committee send money to the states in order to get around the federal
spending limits that went along with accepting federal money for the
national campaign, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: It's my understanding that everything
the Democratic National Committee did had the prior approval of the
lawyers. If they cleared it all in advance, then it was perfectly
legal. And when this issue was raised about a year ago, the exact
issue, I believe that that was clarified at that time. I'm sure that
they had legal advice that they followed, and I believe the
Republicans said that they did some of the same things and also had
prior legal clearance.
Q Mr. Clinton, do you that Mrs. Reno -- she's been
advised to go forward with the 90-day investigation into the
fundraising calls of the Vice President -- and perhaps Mr. Gore would
like to comment, too --
THE PRESIDENT: I think that --
Q -- do you feel that the 90-day investigation would
be helpful?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, if you read the statute, she can
consider certain things in the 90-day period that are not permitted
in the 30-day period. But I think this is a legal question and it
should be done based on an independent legal review with no pressure
from the outside, from me or from anyone else. And that's the way I
intend to keep it, at least on my part.
Thank you.
END 11:09 A.M. EDT
This is a mirror of the White House press release, October 2, 1997, from the <http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/html/briefroom.html> White House Briefing Room.
Additional information on the initiative to ensure the safety of imported and domestic fruits and vegetables.
