Chinese Astrology - Animals |
CHINESE ASTROLOGY - OBAMA IS A 'YIN METAL OX' BULL George
W Bush, born July 6, 1946 was born in the Year of Yang Fire Dog
Richard (Dick) Cheney, born January 30, 1941 was born in the
Year of the Metal Snake
Henry Kissinger (Barack Obama's mentor) born on May 24, 1923
was born in the Year of the Dog.
Henry Alfred Kissinger (born Heinz Alfred Kissinger
is a
German-born
American
political scientist,
diplomat, and winner of the
Nobel Peace Prize. He served as
National Security Advisor and later concurrently as
Secretary of State in the
Nixon administration. Henry Kissinger was President Obama's
mentor.
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski (Polish:
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński, :
(born March 28, 1928,
Warsaw,
Poland)
is a Polish-born
American
political scientist,
geostrategist, and
statesman who served as
United States National Security Advisor to
President
Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. Known for his
hawkish
foreign policy at a time when the
Democratic Party was increasingly
dovish, he is a foreign policy "realist"
and considered by some to be the Democrats' response to
Republican
Henry Kissinger. He was born in the Year of the Wood Ox (Bull) Barack Obama, born August 4, 1961 was born in the Year of Yin Metal
Ox (Bull)
Joseph (Joe) Biden, born November 20, 1942
was born in the Year of the Water Horse
Hillary Clinton, born October 26, 1947 was born in the
Year of Yang Fire Boar (Pig)
If Obama (Ox) and Hillary (rabbit) are skinned - that says a lot
for their politics. Exactly what skinned means - remains to be seen.
William Clinton, born Aug. 19, 1946 was born in the Year of Yang
Fire Dog
Clinton won a
Rhodes Scholarship to the University of
Oxford in
England, ...
Cecil Rhodes 5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902 was
born in the Year of the Water Ox.
He
was an ardent believer in
colonialism and
imperialism, and was the founder of the
state of
Rhodesia, which was named after him.
This is where the New World
Order was born and what Cecil Rhodes invented at Oxford University..
Hillary Clinton was born in the Year of the Pig, which was skinned
in the dream along with the two bulls and rabbit. So she is the ying to
Bill's yang Year of the Dog. The Chinese years are arranged in pairs of
ying/ yang.
Albert (Albert) Gore, born March 31, 1948 was born in the Year
of the Fire Boar (Pig)
Osama bin Laden was born, 10 March 1957 in the Year of the Rooster.
Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi of
Libya was born June, 7 1942 in the Year of the Horse.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; born October 28, 1956) was born in the
Year of the Wood Ram (sheep)
He is the sixth and current
President of the
Islamic Republic of Iran.
Pope Benedict is an Aries, [April 16, 1927] - Year of the Rabbit
He's made two important announcements in the past
weeks. One was about the Bishop and the German holocaust and today
he said that condoms would not help HIV/AIDS. World Health Assembly
President, Guyana's Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy, condemned Pope
Benedict's call for ending condom use in the fights against AIDS,
saying he was trying to sow confusion.
Ayatollah Khamenei] advisor to the president of Iran - Ahmadinejad
was born born 17 July 1939 in the Year of the Rabbit.
Ayman al Zawahri, Egyptian doctor, second in command to Osama bin
Laden was born June 19, 1951 in the Year of the Rabbit. Surgeons "skin" people
which is also a torture.
Fidel Castro of Cuba was born August 13, 1926 in the Year of the Rabbit and he made an
announcement around the New Year that he doesn't think he'll be
around by next year.
Crown Prince Sultan in Saudi Arabia was born 5 January, 1930 in
Riyadh ,Year of the Yin Earth SnakeKing Abdullah, his brother , was born
August 1924 in the Year of the Wood Rat
Crown Prince Bandar, the son of Crown Prince Sultan, was born March 2,
1949 in the Year of the Earth Rat.
The Exchequer of Great Britain, James Gordon Brown, was born 20
February 1951 in the Year of
the Yin Metal Rabbit
President Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev (born 6 July 1940 in
Chemolgan,
Kazakh SSR,
Soviet Union) has served as the
President of Kazakhstan since the
Fall of the Soviet Union and the nation's independence in
1991. He is criticised by some for slow action on widespread
corruption, suppression of opposition, unfair elections and
insufficient freedom of speech In 1984 Nazarbayev
became the
Chairman of the
Council of Ministers, working under
Dinmukhamed Kunayev, the
First Secretary of the
Communist Party of Kazakhstan. He served as First Secretary of
the Kazakh Communist Party from 1989 to 1991. While previously
having
atheistic views in the
Soviet era, Nazarbayev has exerted effort to highlight his
Muslim heritage by traveling on a
hajj
and supporting
mosque renovations [4]
and at the same time attempting to
combat terrorism in Kazakhstan.
He was born in the Year of the Metal Dragon
President of Ecuador, Rafael Vicente Correa Delgado was born
April 6, 1963 in the Year of the Water Rabbit
President Tabaré Ramón Vázquez Rosas. (born January 17,
1940) is the current
President of
Uruguay. A
physician (oncologist) by training, he is a member of the
centre-left
Broad Front coalition ( Frente Amplio in Spanish).
Vázquez was elected president on October 31, 2004 and took office
on March 1, 2005. Born in the Year of Earth Rabbit.
Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (born
Lhamo Döndrub; Wylie:
Lha-mo Don-'grub;
Chinese: 拉莫顿珠) ( 6
July
1935 in
Qinghai), is the 14th
Dalai Lama. He is the head of the
Tibetan government-in-exile based in
Dharamshala,
India. [3]
The Dalai Lama is a spiritual leader revered among Tibetans.
The most influential figure of the
Gelugpa or
Yellow Hat Sect, he has considerable influence over the
other sects of
Tibetan Buddhism. [4]
Tibetans traditionally believe him to be the
reincarnation of his predecessors. The Dalai Lama was
born in the year of the Pig. (There was a riot in
Tibet at a police station in theh headlines on 3-22-09.
President Barrack
Obama is Year of the Ox, which is a type of "bull" and 2009 is
Year of the Ox/ Bull. The next Year of the Bull (calf in my dream below
and the other bull in Dee's dream) will be in 2021.
The next Year of the Rabbit will
be in 2011 - (the year of the Iraq drawdown and also the year that al Zawahri,
second in
command to bin Laden turns 60).
Year of the Pig
as is Mitt Romney.
Sheila's dream of 3-22-09
I dreamed this morning that I was pushing a wheel barrow of baked
beans or
pork n' beans across the doctors' country estate pasture next door
to the
farm. Several calves jumped up out of clumps of tall grass where
the cows had
hidden them, like deer. I turned to warn a girl walking behind me
about the
cows, but I saw a small black bull a few feet away and only one
cow in the
distance chasing a calf. Bulls terrify me, but I turned my back
and kept pushing
the wheel barrow. Then a small black calf followed me and I was
afraid it was
going to touch the back of my calf with its cold nose like a white
pig did in
real life once and almost bit me, but I looked over my shoulder
and saw the
pig just in time and it ran away. A coworker told me that they
bury people
eaten by pigs, putting the pigs in their casket in the Philippine
Islands.
Anyway, the Wheel of Fortune (wheel barrow) is the Tarot card for 2008.
The edge
at the farm where I was pushing it is the Joker/ Fool card in
tarot and the
Hebrew word for the Fool is aleph/ the Ox. it will be the card for
2020/ Year
of the Rat which is George HW Bush's [CIA] card. The farm is a
term for the
CIA country estate in Langley, Virginia.
Sheila
A dream and e-mail from Betty
wrote:
Hi Dee,
I guess you saw the dream sketch of MC Young about the bull, the
bear and
the black swan in a setting of the Joshua tree...symbolic to me of
Southern
CA exactly where Obama is at this time. In that dream the black
swan appears
to be dead (shot down?) over water (Pacific ocean?) I can see why
others
would identify the black swan as Obama. A swan as we layman know
is one of the
most beautiful of birds --but swans normally are white--the black
almost
pinpoints our president. One person commented that a swan also
represents mystical
deception or a magician. Is he shot down by water? Tsunami? God I
hope not
since my girl is there.
OK so now your dream animals are skinned--an animal usually is
dead before
it is skinned. All of your animals have one thing in common --they
are now
all dead. These animals are symbolic of a person or a country or
possibly an
age or period of time (year of the pig). What countries could be
represented
by the bulls, rabbit and pig?
Whatever, the outcome of the situation is that whoever, whatever
each
represents the issue is dead, taken care of, over & done. Now what
does one do
after he skins an animal? a) he can sell the skin for profit b) he
can then
process the meat and eat it himself or c) he can sell the meat to someone else.
In each case, he comes out a winner doesn't he?
Betty
Response from Dee: I can't determine when events will happen, except
if a season is presented in a dream.
I've had dreams come true all the way from immediately to 45 days - so that's the window I tend to
aim at.
Though that said I had a whole string of dreams about giants in
Wisconsin and the only thing that happened was three very strange airplane incidents where
congressman and Obama were on. Hard to determine if was connected to giants, but the word
giant could be symbolic for Illuminati or Bilderberg too. Maybe a sign to the people on the
planes who wanted to be elected that they had better behave themselves according to plan.
See:
GIANTS IN WISCONSIN
I then asked what country has red and white missiles and thought
about going on google.com images to look and I saw what looked
like a
giant-sized pencil ...
www.greatdreams.com/political/giants-false-flag.htm
Anthropologists have found evidence of humanoid
giants existing into the far distant past, over 1 million
years ago (see Gigantopithecus).
...
www.greatdreams.com/reptlan/giants.htm
THE NEPHILIM
The doctrine breeds a race of “spiritual
giants” called the NEPHILIM.
... The Nephilim spirit
produces “spiritual
giants” among men, those of “renown” who
...
www.greatdreams.com/reptlan/nephilim.htm
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
On November 4, 2008, Presidential candidate Barack Obama changed the
face of history by becoming the first African-American President
Elect to win the office of presidency. On January 20, Barack
Obama will be sworn into office and he will start making
decisions that will shape the future of the United States.
Coming off a long and arduous campaign, the state of the nation
will offer no reprieve for the new president. Chinese Astrology
looks ahead to see how Obama’s personal forecast may affect the
nation and his decisions.
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961. His primary personality
traits are ruled by the Chinese Zodiac elemental animal, the
Metal Ox. This is an Earth year and that is positive for the
Metal Ox. Though it is generally not a favorable year for the
Ox, the Earth exerts the most beneficial influence on Metal of
any element. This year could prove to have some defining moments
for the Metal Ox, but he should not allow his strong will to
shadow his common sense, as this could deter certain goals and
hinder relations at work and at home.
According to Chinese Astrology, the first month in office may be
a difficult adjustment for Obama, as here is a look at his
Chinese Astrology personal forecast for February:
January 26, 2009 to February 24, 2009
Month of The Chinese Zodiac elemental animal sign, the Fire
Tiger
24% Favorable. This is a very unpredictable month for the Ox. An
area that proposes concern is your financial situation. You may
have had a career or position change in the past year that may
be on shaky ground, perhaps by situations beyond your control.
Travel this month is not recommended. Positive light is shed on
a relationship. This is a good month to focus on the one you are
with and consider taking it to the next level.
Fortunately for Obama, there March promises to be more
favorable. Certain other favorable months are May and September.
Barack Obama promises to make changes for the United States and
he certainly has the charisma and intelligence to do so. Chinese
Astrology cannot predict the outcome of his decision, but it can
certainly be a guide to his favorable periods. We wish you all
the luck in office and hope that you have the presence to make
the changes that are needed.
For more article about Obama, let's check out this site
http://www.onlinechineseastrology.com/spec...ma-reading.html
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ANIMAL FARM
Animal Farm
is a
dystopian
novel by
George Orwell. Published in
England on 17 August
1945, the book reflects events
leading up to and during the
Stalin era before
World War II. Orwell, a
democratic socialist[1]
and a member of the
Independent Labour Party for
many years, was a critic of
Joseph Stalin and was suspicious
of
Moscow-directed
Stalinism after his experiences
with the
NKVD during the
Spanish Civil War. In a letter
to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described
Animal Farm as his novel "contre
Stalin".[2]
The original title was Animal
Farm: A Fairy Story, but A
Fairy Story was dropped by the
US publishers for its 1946
publication. Of all the translations
during Orwell's lifetime, only
Telugu kept the original title.
Other variations in the title
include: A Satire and A
Contemporary Satire.[2]
Orwell suggested for the
French translation the title
Union des républiques socialistes
animales or URSA, which means
"bear" in Latin.[2]
Time Magazine chose the book
as one of the 100 best
English-language novels (1923 to
2005),[3]
at number 31 on the
Modern Library List of Best
20th-Century Novels. It won a
Retrospective
Hugo Award in 1996 and is also
included in the
Great Books of the Western World.
Overview
The short
novel is
dystopian
allegory in which animals play
the roles of the
Bolshevik revolutionaries[4]
and overthrow and oust the human
owner of a farm (Manor Farm),
renaming it Animal Farm and setting
it up as a commune in which, at
first, all animals are equal;
however, class and status
disparities soon emerge between the
different animal species (the pigs
being the "greater species"). The
novel describes how a society's
ideologies can be manipulated and
twisted by those in positions of
social and political power,
including how
Utopian society is made
impossible by the corrupting nature
of the very power necessary to
create it.
The novel addresses not only
the corruption of revolution by its
leaders but also highlights how
wickedness in human nature
(indifference, ignorance, greed and
myopia) destroys any possibility of
Utopia. While this novel deigns poor
leadership as the flaw in revolution
(and not the revolution of itself),
it also shows how ignorance and
indifference to problems within a
revolution let the horrors happen.
Characters and their possible
real-life counterparts
The events and characters in
Animal Farm satirise
Stalinism ("Animalism"),
authoritarian government and
human stupidity generally; Snowball
is seen as
Leon Trotsky and the head pig,
Napoleon, is
Stalin.
Pigs
Old Major, a prize
Middle White boar,[5]
is the inspiration that fuels the
Rebellion in the book. According to
one interpretation, he could be
based upon both
Karl Marx (in that he describes
the ideal society the animals could
create if the humans are overthrown)
and
Vladimir Lenin (in that his
skull is put on revered public
display, as was
Lenin's embalmed corpse).
However, according to
Christopher Hitchens: "the
Leon Trotsky elements are
combined into one [i.e., Snowball],
or, it might even be [...] to say,
there is no Lenin at all."[6]
He introduces the animals to
the song "Beasts
of England", which becomes their
anthem, and puts the idea of
rebellion in the animals' heads.
Napoleon, a
Berkshire boar ("a large, rather
fierce-looking Berkshire boar, the
only Berkshire on the farm, not much
of a talker, but with a reputation
for getting his own way."),[5]
is the main
tyrant and
villain of Animal Farm
and is based upon
Joseph Stalin. He begins to
gradually build up his power, using
puppies he took from mother dogs
Jessie and Bluebell, which he raises
to be vicious dogs as his
secret police. After driving
Snowball off the farm, Napoleon
usurps full power, using false
propaganda from Squealer and threats
and intimidation from the dogs to
keep the other animals in line.
Among other things, he gradually
changes the Commandments to allow
himself privileges such as eating at
a table and to justify his
dictatorial rule. By the end of the
book, Napoleon and his fellow pigs
have learned to walk upright and
started to behave similarly to the
humans against whom they originally
revolted. Napoleon's name adds to
the novella's themes of totalitarian
dictators rising from vacuum of
power and absolute power corrupting
absolutely. The character's
namesake,
Napoleon Bonaparte, forcibly
took control from a weak government
in
1799, installed himself as First
Consul and eventually crowned
himself Emperor.
The French Revolution served
as inspiration for many of
Karl Marx's ideas. In the first
French version of Animal Farm,
Napoleon is called
César,
the French spelling of
Caesar.[2],
although another translation has him
as
Napoléon.[7]
Snowball is Napoleon's rival. He
is an allusion to
Leon Trotsky. He wins over most
animals, but is driven out of the
farm by Napoleon. Snowball genuinely
works for the good of the farm and
devises plans to help the animals
achieve their vision of an
egalitarian Utopia, but Napoleon
and his dogs chase him from the
farm, and Napoleon spreads rumours
to make him seem evil and corrupt
and that he had secretly sabotaged
the animals' efforts to improve the
farm. In his biography of Orwell,
Bernard Crick suggests that
Snowball was as much inspired by the
Workers' Party of Marxist
Unification (POUM) leader
Andrés Nin as by Trotsky. Nin
was a similarly adept orator and
also fell victim to the Communist
purges of the Left during the
Spanish Civil War.[citation
needed]
Squealer, a small fat porker,
serves as Napoleon's right hand pig
and minister of propaganda. Inspired
by
Vyacheslav Molotov and the
Soviet paper
Pravda, Squealer manipulates
the language to excuse, justify, and
extol all of Napoleon's actions. He
represents all the propaganda Stalin
used to justify his own terrible
acts. In all of his work, George
Orwell made it a point to show how
politicians used language. Squealer
limits debate by complicating it and
he confuses and disorients, making
claims that the pigs need the extra
luxury they are taking in order to
function properly, for example.
However, when questions persist, he
usually uses the threat of the
return of Mr Jones, the former owner
of the farm, to justify the pigs'
privileges. Squealer uses statistics
to convince the animals that life is
getting better and better. Most of
the animals have only dim memories
of life before the revolution;
therefore, they are convinced.
Minimus is a poetic pig who
writes the second and third national
anthems of Animal Farm after
the singing of "Beasts of England"
is banned. He represents admirers of
Stalin both inside and outside the
USSR such as
Maxim Gorky. As Minimus composed
the replacement of "Beasts of
England", he may equate to the three
main composers of the
National Anthem of the Soviet Union
which replaced
The Internationale –
Gabriel El-Registan,
Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov
and
Sergey Mikhalkov.[citation
needed]
The Piglets are hinted to be
the children of Napoleon (albeit not
truly noted in the novel) and are
the first generation of animals
actually subjugated to his idea of
animal inequality.
The Rebel Pigs are four pigs
who complain about Napoleon's
takeover of the farm but are quickly
silenced and later executed. This is
based on the
Great Purge during Stalin's
regime. The closest parallels to the
Rebel Pigs may be
Nikolai Bukharin,
Alexei Rykov,
Grigory Zinoviev and
Lev Kamenev.[citation
needed]
Pinkeye is a minor pig who is
mentioned only once; he is the pig
that tastes Napoleon's food to make
sure it's not poisoned, in response
to rumours about an assassination
attempt on Napoleon.
]
Humans
Mr. Jones represents
Nicholas II of Russia, the
deposed
Czar, who had been facing severe
financial difficulties in the days
leading up to the
1917 Revolution. The character
is also a nod towards
Louis XVI. There are several
implications that he represents an
autocratic but ineffective
capitalist, incapable of running
the farm and looking after the
animals properly. Jones is a very
heavy
drinker and the animals revolt
against him after he drinks so much
that he does not
feed or take
care of them, and his attempt to
recapture the farm is foiled in the
Battle of the Cowshed (the
Russian Civil War).
Mr. Frederick is the tough
owner of Pinchfield, a well-kept
neighbouring farm. He represents
Adolf Hitler and the
Nazi Party in general.[8]
He buys
wood from the animals for
forged
money and later attacks them,
destroying the
windmill but being finally
beaten in the resulting Battle of
the Windmill (World
War II), which could be
interpreted as either the battle of
Moscow or
Stalingrad. There are also
stories of him mistreating his own
animals, such as throwing dogs into
a furnace, which may also represent
the Nazi Party's treatment of
political dissidents.
Mr. Pilkington is the easy-going
but
crafty owner of Foxwood, a
neighbouring farm overgrown with
weeds, as described in the book.
He represents the
western powers, such as the
United Kingdom and the
United States. The card game at
the very end of the novel is a
metaphor for the
Tehran Conference, where the
parties flatter each other, all the
while
cheating at the game. This last
scene is
ironic because all the Pigs are
civil and kind to the humans,
defying all for which they had
fought. This happened at the Tehran
Conference: the Soviet Union formed
an alliance with the United States
and the United Kingdom, capitalist
countries that the Soviet Union had
fought in the early years of the
revolution.[8]
At the end of the game, both
Napoleon and Pilkington draw the
Ace of
Spades and then begin
fighting loudly, symbolising the
beginning of tension between the
U.S. and Soviet superpowers.
Mr. Whymper is a man hired by
Napoleon to
represent Animal Farm in
human society. He is loosely based
on Western intellectuals such as
George Bernard Shaw and,
especially,
Lincoln Steffens, who visited
the USSR in 1919.
Equines
There are four main equine (horse
and
donkey) characters: Clover,
Boxer, Benjamin, and Mollie.
Boxer is one of the main
characters. He is the pathetic
symbol of the working class, or
proletariat: loyal, kind,
dedicated, respectful and physically
the strongest animal on the farm,
but naïve and slow. His
ignorance and blind
trust towards his leaders leads
to his death and their profit. In
particular, his heroic physical work
represents the
Stakhanovite movement. His maxim
of "I will work harder" is
reminiscent of Jurgis Rudkus from
the
Upton Sinclair novel
The Jungle. His second
maxim, "Napoleon is always right" is
an example of the propaganda used by
Squealer to control the animals. It
was not adopted until later in the
book. Boxer's work ethic is often
praised by the pigs, and he is set
as a prime example to the other
animals. When Boxer is injured, and
can no longer work, Napoleon sends
him off to the
knacker's yard and deceives the
other animals, saying that Boxer
died peacefully in the
hospital. When the animals
cannot
work, Napoleon tosses them
aside, for they mean nothing to him
and Napoleon was not just done with
Boxer because he could not work. He
was also afraid of Boxer. Boxer had
the strength and leadership to
overthrow Napoleon. Napoleon never
saw that Boxer would never do this
because he was loyal to Napoleon.
Clover, Boxer's companion, is
also a
draft horse. She helps and cares
for Boxer when he splits his
hoof. She blames herself for
forgetting the original
Seven Commandments when Squealer
had actually revised them. Clover is
compassionate, as is shown when
she protects the
baby
ducklings during Major's speech.
She is also upset when animals are
executed by the dogs, and is
held in great
respect by the three younger
horses who ultimately replace
Boxer. Beyond being the
matriarch it is hard to find a
political role for her in the novel.
Mollie is a self-centred and
vain white
mare who likes wearing
ribbons in her mane, eating
sugar cubes (which represent
luxury) and being pampered and
groomed by humans. She represents
upper-class people, the
bourgeoisie and
nobility who fled to the West
after the
Russian Revolution and
effectively
dominated the
Russian diaspora. Accordingly,
she quickly leaves for another farm
and is only once mentioned again.
Benjamin is a
wise old
donkey who shows little
emotion and is one of the
longest-lived animals; he is
still alive at the end of the book
and probably lives even longer than
Napoleon. The animals often ask him
about his lack of expression but he
always answers with: 'Donkeys live a
long time. None of you have ever
seen a dead donkey.' Benjamin can
also read as well as any pig, but
rarely displays his ability. He is a
dedicated friend to Boxer and is
very upset when Boxer is taken away.
Benjamin has known about the pigs'
wrongdoing the entire time, but he
says nothing to the other animals.
He represents the cynics in society.
Another possibility is that Benjamin
is an allegory for
intellectuals who have the
wisdom to stay clear of the purges,
but take no action themselves, such
as
pacifists, whose 'line' Orwell
firmly disliked. Yet another
possibility is that Benjamin is
Orwell himself.
Other
animals
Muriel is a wise old
goat who is friends with all of
the animals on the farm. She, like
Benjamin and Snowball, is one of the
few animals on the farm who can
read (with some difficulty, she
has to spell the words out first)
and helps Clover discover that the
Seven Commandments have been
continually changed. She possibly
represents the same category as
Benjamin, though she dies near the
end of the book from
old age.
The Puppies, were raised by
Napoleon to be his
security force, and may be
reference to the fact that
Stalin's rise to power was
helped by his appointment as General
Secretary of the Communist Party by
Lenin in 1922, in which role he
used his powers of appointment,
promotion and demotion to quietly
pack the party with his own
supporters. The puppies represent
Stalin's
secret police.
Moses the
Raven is an old
bird that occasionally visits
the farm with tales of a place in
the sky called Sugarcandy Mountain,
where he says animals go when they
die, but only if they work hard. He
spends time turning the animals'
minds to Sugarcandy Mountain and he
does no work. He represents
religious leaders, specifically the
Russian Orthodox Church, and
Sugarcandy Mountain is Heaven.
Religion is banned in the new
régime, and his religious persona is
exacerbated by the fact that he is
named after
a biblical character. He feels
unequal in comparison to the other
animals, so he leaves after the
rebellion, for all animals were
supposed to be equal. However, much
later in the book he returns to the
farm and continues to proclaim the
existence of Sugarcandy Mountain.
The other animals are confused by
the pigs' attitude towards Moses;
they denounce his claims as
nonsense, but allow him to remain on
the farm. The pigs do this to offer
the hope of a happy afterlife to the
other animals, probably to keep
their minds on Sugarcandy Mountain
and not on possible uprisings. This
is an allegory to Stalin's pact with
the Russian Orthodox Church. In the
end, Moses is one of few animals to
remember the rebellion, along with
Clover, Benjamin, and the pigs.
The
Sheep represent the mass
proletariat,
manipulated to support Napoleon
in spite of his treachery. They show
limited understanding of the
situations but support him anyway,
and regularly chant "Four legs good,
Two legs bad". At the end of the
novel, one of the Seven Commandments
is changed after the pigs learn to
walk on two legs, so they shout
"Four legs good, two legs better".
They can be relied on by the pigs to
shout down any dissent from others.
The
Rats may represent some of the
nomadic people in the far north
of the
USSR.
The
Hens may represent the
Kulaks as they
destroy their
eggs rather than hand them over
to Napoleon, just as during
collectivisation some Kulaks
destroyed
machinery or killed their
livestock.
Alcohol
One of the Seven Commandments
is that no animal should drink
alcohol. The pigs, the rulers, not
only disobeyed this rule but struck
it out and then started buying and
brewing alcohol for themselves.
Alcohol perhaps is a metaphor for
money, or rather the love of it.
Origin
George Orwell wrote the
manuscript in 1943 and 1944
following his experiences during the
Spanish Civil War, which he
described in his 1938
Homage to Catalonia.
In the preface of a 1947
Ukrainian edition of Animal Farm he
explained how escaping the communist
purges in Spain taught him
how easily totalitarian
propaganda can control the
opinion of enlightened people in
democratic countries.
This motivated Orwell to
expose and strongly condemn what he
saw as the
Stalinist corruption of the
original
socialist ideals.[9]
In that preface Orwell also
described what gave him the idea of
setting the book on a farm:[9]
...I saw a little boy,
perhaps ten years old, driving a
huge carthorse along a narrow
path, whipping it whenever it
tried to turn. It struck me that
if only such animals became
aware of their strength we
should have no power over them,
and that men exploit animals in
much the same way as the rich
exploit the proletariat.
Orwell encountered great
difficulty getting the manuscript
published. Four publishers refused;
one had initially accepted the work
but declined after consulting with
the
Ministry of Information.[10][11]
Eventually Martin
Secker and Warburg published the
first edition in 1945.
Significance
The Horn and Hoof Flag
(interpretation above)
described in the book appears
to be based on the
hammer and sickle.
In the
Eastern Bloc both Animal Farm
and later, also
Nineteen Eighty-Four were on
the list of forbidden books up until
die Wende in 1989, and were
only available via clandestine
Samizdat networks.[12]
The 1947 Ukrainian edition was
an early propaganda use of the book.[clarification
needed] It was
printed to be distributed among the
Soviet citizens of Ukraine who were
some of the many millions of
displaced persons throughout
Europe at the end of the Second
World War. The American occupation
forces considered the edition to be
propaganda printed on illegal
presses, and handed 1,500
confiscated copies of Animal Farm
over to the Soviet authorities.[clarification
needed] The
politics in the book also affected
the UK, with Orwell reporting that
Ernest Bevin was "terrified"[13]
that it may cause embarrassment if
published before the
1945 general election.
In recent years,[when?]
the book has been used to compare
new movements that overthrow heads
of a corrupt and undemocratic
government or organisation, only
eventually to become corrupt and
oppressive themselves as they
succumb to the trappings of power
and begin using violent and
dictatorial methods to keep it. Such
analogies have been used for many
former African colonies such as
Zimbabwe and
the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
whose succeeding African-born rulers
were accused of being as corrupt as,
or worse than, the European
colonists they supplanted.
The book also clearly ponders
whether a focus of power in one
person is healthy for a society. The
book leaves the ending slightly
ambiguous in this regard.[clarification
needed]
The
Freedom of the Press
Secker and Warburg published
the first edition of Animal Farm in
1945 without any introduction.
However, the publisher had provided
space for a preface in the author's
proof composited from the
manuscript. For reasons unknown, no
preface was supplied and all the
page numbers needed to be redone at
the last minute.[14][15]
Years later, in 1972, Ian
Angus found the original typescript
titled "The Freedom of the Press",
and Bernard Crick published it,
together with his own introduction
in
The Times Literary Supplement on
15 September 1972[14]
as "How the essay came to be
written".[15]
Orwell's essay criticised British
self-censorship by the press,
specifically the suppression of
unflattering descriptions of Stalin
and the Soviet government.[15]
The same essay also appeared
in the Italian 1976 Animal Farm
edition, with another introduction
by Crick, claiming to be the first
edition with the preface.[14]
Other publishers were still
declining to publish it.
During
World War II it became apparent
to Orwell that anti-Russian
literature was not something which
most major publishing houses would
touch — including his regular
publisher
Gollancz. One publisher he
sought during the war, who had
initially accepted Animal Farm,
subsequently rejected his book after
an official at the British
Ministry of Information warned
him off[16]
— although the civil servant who it
is assumed[by
whom?] gave the
order was later found to be a
Soviet
spy.[17]
The publisher then wrote to Orwell,
saying:[16]
"If the fable were addressed
generally to dictators and
dictatorships at large then
publication would be all right, but
the fable does follow, as I see now,
so completely the progress of the
Russian Soviets and their two
dictators [Lenin and Stalin], that
it can apply only to Russia, to the
exclusion of the other
dictatorships.
"Another thing: it would be
less offensive if the predominant
caste in the fable were not pigs. I
think the choice of pigs as the
ruling caste will no doubt give
offence to many people, and
particularly to anyone who is a bit
touchy, as undoubtedly the Russians
are."
Orwell originally wrote a
preface which complains about
self-imposed British self-censorship
and how the British people were
suppressing criticism of the USSR,
their World War II ally. "The
sinister fact about literary
censorship in England is that it
is largely voluntary. ... Things are
kept right out of the British press,
not because the Government
intervenes but because of a general
tacit agreement that 'it wouldn't
do' to mention that particular
fact." Somewhat
ironically, the preface itself
was censored and is not published
with most editions of the book.[18][19]
The same "voluntary" system
still exists with the
DA-Notice.[clarification
needed]
Cultural
references
References to the novella are
frequent in other works of popular
culture, particularly in popular
music and television series.
Adaptations
Animal Farm has been
adapted to film twice. The
1954 Animal Farm film was an
animated feature and the
1999 Animal Farm film was a TV
live action version (which differs
from the book factually).[clarification
needed]
See
also
Notes
-
^
"Why
I Write" (1936) (The
Collected Essays, Journalism and
Letters of George Orwell Volume
1 - An Age Like This 1945-1950
p.23 (Penguin))
-
^
a
b
c
d
Davison
2000
-
^
Grossman
2005
-
^
George Orwell (June 1976), La
fattoria degli animali,
Bruno Tasso (translator) (1
ed.), Italy: Oscar Mondadori,
pp. 15,20
(Bernard
Crick's preface quotes
Orwell writing to T.S.Eliot
about Cape's suggestion to find
another animal than pigs to
represent the Bolsheviks)
-
^
a
b
Google books online
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story
George Orwell, Signet Classic,
1996
ISBN 0451526341,
9780451526342 p25
-
^
Hitchens, Christopher (2002),
Why Orwell Matters, Basic Books,
pp 18.
-
^
Jean Quéval (1981), Edition
Gallimard, ISBN-10 2070375161,
ISBN 978-2-07-037516-5
-
^
a
b
Moran page
39
-
^
a
b
Orwell 1947
-
^
Dag 2004
-
^
Orwell
1976 page 25 La libertà di
stampa
-
^
Editors of German Wikipedia:
[1]
-
^
Letter to
Herbert Read, 18 August,
1945
-
^
a
b
c
Orwell
page 15. introduction by
Bernard Crick
-
^
a
b
c
George Orwell:
The Freedom of the Press -
Orwell's Proposed Preface to
'Animal Farm’. 1945
-
^
a
b
"The whitewashing of Stalin".
BBC News. 2008-11-11.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7719633.stm.
-
^
Taylor page
337 Writing to Leonard
Moore, a partner in the literary
agency of Christy & Moore,
publisher "Jonathan Cape
explained that the decision had
been taken on the advice of a
senior official in the Ministry
of Information. Such flagrant
anti-Soviet bias was
unacceptable: and the choice of
pigs as the dominant class was
thought to be especially
offensive. The 'important
official' was, or so it may
reasonably be assumed, a man
named
Peter Smollett, later
unmasked as a Soviet agent."
-
^
Bailey83221
(Bailey83221 includes a preface
and two cites: 1995-08-26 The
Guardian page 28; 1995-08-26 New
Statesman & Society 8 (366): 11.
ISSN: 0954-2361)
-
^
Dag 2004
Citations
-
Bailey83221 (2006-05-12).
"Animal Farm suppression".
http://bailey83221.livejournal.com/83481.html.
-
Bott, George (1968) [1958].
Selected Writings. London,
Melbourne, Toronto, Singapore,
Johannesburg, Hong Kong,
Nairobi, Auckland, Ibadan:
Heinemann Educational Books.
pp. 13–14, 23.
ISBN 0-4351-3675-5.
-
Dag, O. (2004-12-19).
"George Orwell: The Freedom of
the Press". orwell.ru.
Archived from
the original on 2005-03-06.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050306021634/http://orwell.ru/library/novels/Animal_Farm/english/efp_go.
Retrieved on 2008-07-31.
-
Davison, Peter (2000).
"George Orwell: Animal Farm: A
Fairy Story -- 'A Note on the
Text'". written at England.
Penguin Books. Archived from
the original on 2006-12-12.
http://web.archive.org/web/20061212041856/http://www.orwell.ru/library/novels/Animal_Farm/english/eint_pd.
-
doollee.com.
"Wooldridge Ian - playwright".
http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsW/WooldridgeIan.htm.
Retrieved on 2008-07-31.
-
Grossman, Lev; Richard Lacayo
(2005).
"The Complete List / TIME
Magazine - ALL-TIME 100 Novels".
TIME magazine.
http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html.
Retrieved on 2008-08-31.
-
Hitchens, Christopher.
Unacknowledged Legislation:
Writers in the Public Sphere.
Verso. p. 38.
http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=RBGmrDnBs8UC&hl=en.
Retrieved on 2008-09-26.
-
Christian Lowe (editor)
(2006-03-10).
"Defense Tech: CIA, Movie
Producer".
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002229.html.
Retrieved on 2008-07-31.
-
Moran, Daniel.
Critical Essays - Animal Farm
and the Russian Revolution.
CliffsNotes. p. 39.
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-12,pageNum-39.html.
Retrieved on 2008-08-31.
-
Orwell, George (March 1947).
"Preface to the Ukrainian
Edition of Animal Farm".
http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/ukrainian-af-pref.htm.
-
Taylor, David John (2003).
Orwell: The Life. H. Holt.
p. 197.
ISBN 0-8050-7473-2.
-
Woolridge, Ian.
"Ian Wooldridge - Animal Farm".
http://www.ian-wooldridge.com/animalfarm.php.
Retrieved on 2008-07-31.
External links
|
Animal Farm
Introduction “Animal Farm” is a symbolical political
satire in which animals take the place of humans. These animals
can talk and are just as intelligent as humans. They learn to read
and each type of animal a different aspect of humanity. (Ex.:
Pigs- Politicians; Horses- Laborers; Sheep- Gullible People; etc.
) This book shows how a government that is set up to serve the
people turns against them, just like communism did to the Russian
people. Animalism symbolizes communism and the characters
symbolize Russian leaders and people of importance. This is a tale
with no happy ending. Characters The Pigs They symbolize
politicians in a stereotypical sense. Some of them lie, cheat, and
steal from the animals they are supposed to serve. They make
promises that are never kept. Propaganda is spread to the animals
they are supposed to represent. Old Major He is a pig who is very
old. He has seen the lifestyle the animals live and is
dissatisfied with it. He creates a government ideology called
animalism which represents communism. He is the Karl Marx of this
world. Napoleon He is a large, fierce looking Berkshire boar, who
is not much of a talker. He uses animalism only to increase his
power and the dogs to terrorize the other animals.
I decided to read Animal Farm after we watched the movie in class.
I slept through some of it in class but what I did see I liked so
I knew I needed to read the book so that I would know everything
that happened. It is a very creative way to present communism and
using animals instead of people is more inte
Napoleon symbolizes the dictator Joseph Stalin in this world.
Snowball He is a pig that fights with Napoleon over the power on
the farm. He is a very energetic, eloquent speaking, brilliant
leader who organizes the defense of the farm. Napoleons
jealousness of him makes him try to kill Snowball. Snowball flees
the area and every misfortune in Animal Farm after that is blamed
on him. He represents Leon Trotsky in this story. Squealor He is a
short, fat, twinkle eyed pig who is a brilliant talker. He
justifies the horrible actions of Napoleon and most of the animals
buy into it. He has a sly, persuasive air to him. This is why he
is head of Napoleon’s propaganda plan. Boxer He is a large, very
powerful horse who is not too bright. He buys into animalism and
works the hardest on the farm. He saves the farm on multiple
occasions and declared a national hero. After he gets too sick to
work Napoleon secretly sells him to a glue factory. Boxer
symbolizes the hard working Russian class that Stalin abused for
his own benefit. Mollie She is a mare who abandons Animal Farm for
sugar and ribbons at the human inn. She represents the nobles of
Russia that abandoned the people after the Russian Revolution. The
Dogs These animals are the military force and secret police of
this totalitarian government. They were trained at birth to be
completely loyal to Napoleon. They are Animalism only true
physical force and without them the pigs would be powerless. T
Some topics in this essay:
Snowball Napoleon,
Farm Plot,
Leon Trotsky,
Animal Farm,
Characters Pigs,
Gullible People,
Joseph Stalin,
Napoleon Animalism, ,
Karl Marx,
animal farm,
whatever goes legs,
set serve,
whatever goes,
animals supposed,
goes legs,
government set,
totalitarian government,
animals buy,
government set serve,
windmill built,
secret police,
|
GEORGE W. BUSH FAMILY TIED TO NAZISM
George W. Bush, born July 6, 1946 was born in
the Year of Yang Fire Dog
George H. W. Bush, born June 12, 1924
was born in the Year of the Wood Boar
Prescott Bush. born May 15, 1895
was born in the Year of the Metal
Ram (sheep)
Three subsequent generations
of the Bush family have been Yale alumni. Prescott Bush was admitted
to the
Zeta Psi fraternity and
Skull and Bones secret society.
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott
Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that
profited from their involvement with the financial backers
of Nazi Germany.
The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly
discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of
which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the
financial architects of Nazism.
His business dealings, which continued until his
company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with
the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil
action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush
family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz and to a
hum of pre-election controversy.
The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war
crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action
should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and
comfort to the enemy.
MORE AT:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
There is a
FREE, 9 minutes and 50 seconds documentary video clip excerpt
exposing the truth about the Bush family directly tied into Hitler
and Nazi Germany along with of course, the Skull and Bones, Bohemian
Grove and the Illuminati. Click
HERE to watch a video and
get a feel for the full documentary. Then show it to fellow
Christians who think George W. Bush is really an okay kind of
fellow, who is a genuine man of true Christian faith.
The video
is an Alex Jones Production - from one of his films at
www.PrisonPlanet.com
We would
agree that "Dubya" (George W. Bush) is a man of faith, but it
appears to be not of our faith. We’ve seen no evidence to suggest
that "Dubya" believes and claims that he is and has been "saved by
grace through faith alone, in the Lord Jesus Christ. As a "liberal,
Methodist" many of whom are woshipping the pagan Earth-Mother
goddess - a.k.a.
Ishtar - you know her, the MOTHER
OF THE HARLOTS of Revelation 17: 5.
Bush’s brand of "faith" is right in
line with the Satanic doctrines and dogmas. We see no
indication by Bush to the contrary, but rather, plenty of evidence
that his entire life and that of his family is wrapped up in
the Illuminati which controlled the
Nazis and the Communists.
We, at A-O have had many e-mails from "Christians" who think
the Republicans are the political party of
fundamentalist/evangelical Christianity. Many wrote to attack us for
posting all those pictures of George Bush and others flashing a
Satanic hand signal during the Second Inaugural proceedings.
THE LONGHORN
SYMBOLISM
They
protested the feeble White House excuse issued later
that the President was merely flashing the Texas University
"Longhorns" symbol. They told us emphatically that we were
wrong and how dare we attack a Christian president serving
the Lord. We suspect that the "Lord" Bush
serves is "lord" Lucifer not the Lord Jesus Christ. Here again
are two pictures linking it to Satanic symbolism ...
Portrait of Anton
Levay Leader of Church of Satan.
Note the position
of the fingers on his left hand. A Satanic signal
George is alumnus of Yale
and the Satanic "Skull and Bones Society"
So
are his father and Grandfather as well as the Bohemian Grove
where there is open worship of Baal (Molech - the owl god) and
prayers to Inanna/Ishtar - THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS - are
proclaimed aloud as an invocation preceding the ceremonial (?)
fake-human(?) sacrifice on a fiery altar of a large stone owl.
PHOTO
TAKEN AT THE CALIFORNIA BOHEMIAN GROVE CEREMONY
See:
http://www.greatdreams.com/political/bohemian.htm
for more photos
This
is also on video. The Bush family has their own special lodge
for the family and their guests. The folks that made this same
video we’ve already mentioned linking the Bush’s to the
Nazi’s also has an over 2 hour video of secretly taped
video coverage of the Bohemian Grove opening night ceremony
from the year 2000 event.
Here is how the video
happened.
-
The
video is very riveting for those with spiritual maturity to
understand it. If your are spiritually mature enough, you’ll
quickly realize the enormity of the event and the video. You
can even find short, video clip movie clips of this
documentary by clicking
HERE - if necessary
click start button several times, till movie clip
starts!!!
-
Larger video clip of RAW video of event
HERE
-
Another clip
HERE
-
Here’s a
Photo Gallery of Bohemian Grove
Information
See
photos from the Bohemian Grove’s private Yearbook. The
pictures may stun some Christians who protest that George is
just a sincere, loving, Christian believer. We suggest high
dosage of skepticism is in order. Remember, We’ve never heard
Bush ever claim that salvation is by Grace through Faith
alone. All we’ve ever heard was a "Works" vocabulary. As Paul
writes in Galatians, a "Works" salvation gains you eternal
damnation. The demons believed in Jesus. In fact, when
Jesus encountered the Demons, He had to admonish
them not to get too carried away in identifying Him as the
Son of God.
Demons have a very straight doctrinal understanding -
they’re simply in rebellion over it. So anyone can make claims
and reiterate wonderful sounding terms and even a "testimony"
of sorts. That does not mean that they are a Christian. We see
no signs whatsoever that George W. Bush is a Christian.
Instead we see the reverse with attendance at the Bohemian
Grove, where Satan is worshipped directly. Just see the video
links given above.
Pics of "Dubya" speaking to the group with the huge Satanic
stone idol of an owl (Baal - aka "Molech" in Canaan - whom
they borrowed from Babylon and the Babylonians called
"Baal" or Bel, aka Marduk/ Mardok/Merodach all dependent upon
the dialect or language. The Greeks and Romans called him
Mars.)
Nonetheless, you see "Dubya" along with his Dad by his side as
Dubya speaks during a "Lakeside" talk in the daytime at the
Bohemian Grove a few years ago. Oh, there’s also Newt
Gingrich there too.
Some others? How about pics of
Richard Nixon, Art Linkletter and Walter
Cronkite (he offers the prayer to Inanna at the
beginning of the ceremonies which Inanna is a early
dialect name for
Ishtar - they’re one and
the same deity - the MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS, also known as the
Goddes of Liberty/Freedom and Goddess of Love, War
and Justice, as also, Queen of Heaven, aka - Ashtoreth,
Ashtarte, Astarte in Mideast, also as Isis or Ish in Egypt and
in Greece as Astarte, but later as Aphrodite, in early Rome as Libertas and later changed the name to Venus. Oh, yes, she
held many titles.
Some other famous faces in the
pics on that page -- Jimmy Carter, Jack Kemp,
and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt
(below image) an honorary,
invited guest.
So, the next you run across a Christian brother or
sister who tries to rebuke you concerning any criticism of
"Dubya" or the Bush family, show them these
links, pics and videos. I suspect it will leave them
speechless.
|
|
|
Hersh: 'Executive
assassination ring' reported directly to Cheney
Muriel Kane
Published: Wednesday March 11, 2009
See it on youtube.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z78RsKIo1Nc
Investigative
reporter Seymour Hersh dropped a bombshell on Tuesday
when he told an audience at the University of
Minnesota that the military was running an "executive
assassination ring" throughout the Bush years which
reported directly to former Vice President Dick
Cheney.
The remark came out seemingly inadvertently when Hersh
was asked by the moderator of a public discussion of
"America's Constitutional Crisis" whether abuses of
executive power, like those which occurred under
Richard Nixon, continue to this day.
Hersh replied, "After 9/11, I haven’t written about
this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very
deeply involved in domestic activities against people
they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any
legal authority for it. They haven’t been called on it
yet."
Hersh then went on to describe a second area of
extra-legal operations: the Joint Special Operations
Command. "It is a special wing of our special
operations community that is set up independently," he
explained. "They do not report to anybody, except in
the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the
Cheney office. ... Congress has no oversight of it."
"It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and
it’s been going on and on and on," Hersh stated.
"Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going
into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the
CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and
executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in
the name of all of us."
Hersh told MinnPost.com blogger Eric Black in an
email exchange after the event that the subject
was "not something I wanted to dwell about in public."
He is looking into it for a book, but he believes it
may be a year or two before he has enough evidence
"for even the most skeptical."
Stories have been coming out about covert Pentagon
assassination squads for the last several years. In
2003, Hersh himself reported on
Task Force 121, which operated chiefly out of the
Joint Special Operations Command. Others stories spoke
of a proposed
Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group.
As Hersh noted in Minnesota, the New York Times
on Monday
described the Joint Special Operations Command as
overseeing the secret commando units in Afghanistan
whose missions were temporarily ordered halted last
month because of growing concerns over excessive
civilian deaths.
However, it appears that Hersh is now on the trail of
some fresh revelation about these squads and their
connection to Vice-President Cheney that goes well
beyond anything that has previously been reported.
Eric Black's blog posting, which includes an hour-long
audio recording of the full University of Minnesota
colloquy, is available
here.
|
Kissinger influence on Obama administration & UFO policy
March 23, 2009
Henry Kissinger meets Vladimir Putin on March 20. Photo: AP
President Obama’s National Security Advisor, General Jim
Jones (USMC ret.) made a very curious comment at the 45th
Munich Conference on Security Policy in Germany.
He said:
Thank you for that wonderful tribute to Henry Kissinger
yesterday. Congratulations. As the most recent National
Security Advisor of the United States, I take my daily
orders from Dr. Kissinger, filtered down through General
Brent Scowcroft and Sandy Berger, who is also here.”
Jones’ comment appeared to be an unsuccessful attempt at
dry humor – only a few in the audience actually laughed – in
acknowledging Dr Henry Kissinger’s enormous influence in U.S.
foreign policy which had been acknowledged a day earlier with
a
prestigious award. Many, however, immediately viewed
Jones’ comment as an
unguarded admission of who really is in charge of U.S.
policy. Jones comment raises two serious questions. How much
influence does Kissinger exert over the Obama administration
and the policy making process? Furthermore, what influence
does Kissinger have in influencing U.S. policy on UFOs and
extraterrestrial life?
continued:
http://www.examiner.com/x-2383-Honolulu-Exopolitics-Examiner~y2009m3d23-Kissinger-influence-on-Obama-administration--UFO-policy
Sunday 22 March 2009
by: Fredrik Dahl | Visit article original @ Reuters
Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei addressed a crowd of thousands on the day after US
President Barack Obama sent a taped message to the Iranian
people and its leadership offering a "new beginning" to strained
US-Iranian relations. (Photo: Getty Images)
Tehran - Iran has responded to U.S. President Barack
Obama's offer of better relations by demanding policy changes
from Washington, but the Islamic state is not closing the door
to a possible thaw in ties with its old foe.
Iran wants the United States to show concrete change
in its behavior toward it, for example by handing back frozen
assets, but Tehran is not pursuing "eternal hostility," said
Professor Mohammad Marandi at Tehran University.
Also see below:
Iran's Response to US Sign of Theocracy's
Mind-Set •
"I think they (the Iranian leadership) are quite
willing to have better relations if the Americans are
serious," said Marandi, who heads North American studies at
the university.
A day after Obama held out the prospect of a "new
beginning" of diplomatic engagement, Iran's top authority
spoke at length on Saturday about its grievances against the
United States and said he saw no real policy shift yet by the
new administration.
But Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has
final say on all matters of state, also added in his speech at
Iran's most prominent religious shrine in the northeastern
city of Mashhad: "You change, our behavior will change."
Marandi said Khamenei did not dismiss Obama's
overture but was "effectively saying that this is simply not
enough, that the United States must take concrete steps toward
decreasing tension with Iran."
Iran and the United States have not had diplomatic
ties for three decades and are now embroiled in a dispute over
Tehran's nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at
making bombs. Iran denies the charge.
Saeed Laylaz, editor of business daily Sarmayeh and
an outspoken political commentator, said Khamenei in his
speech had sent a "counter-offer" to the United States
following Obama's video message on Friday to mark the Iranian
New Year. "I think he opened the doors to the United States,"
Laylaz said.
Frozen Assets
After taking office in January, Obama talked of
extending a hand of peace to Tehran if it "unclenches its
fist," in contrast to his predecessor George W. Bush, who
branded Iran part of an "axis of evil" and spearheaded a drive
to isolate it.
In his warmest offer yet of a fresh start in
relations, Obama said in Friday's video message: "The United
States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful
place in the community of nations."
But Khamenei made clear more than a change in U.S.
rhetoric was needed, saying the United States was "hated in
the world" and should stop interfering in other countries.
He also spoke of "oppressive sanctions" imposed on
the Islamic Republic, Iranian assets frozen in the United
States and Washington's backing of Israel, which Tehran does
not recognize.
"Khamenei suggested a very clear way for Obama's
administration, how they can start real action about Iran,"
Laylaz said.
Iranian officials have repeatedly shrugged off the
impact of U.S. and U.N. sanctions on the country but analysts
say tumbling crude prices may make the world's fourth-largest
oil producer more vulnerable to such pressure over its nuclear
activity.
Marandi said the United States could make a
significant move by giving back Iranian assets blocked after a
group of Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran in
1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Analysts have said Iran is setting tough conditions
for dialogue to buy time. Adding to uncertainty, it holds a
presidential election in June that could strengthen moderate
voices backing detente over more hardline opponents.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has demanded
Washington apologize for decades of "crimes" against Iran.
Tehran also says it cannot let down its guard as long as U.S.
troops are on its borders in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But Professor Hamidreza Jalaiepour, who teaches
political sociology in Tehran, said Khamenei had delivered a
pragmatic message rather than one based on ideology on
Saturday.
If the United States eased sanctions imposed on Iran
or released frozen funds, Iran was likely to respond, for
example in helping to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan, he
said.
(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Iran's Response to US Sign of Theocracy's Mind-Set
Saturday 21 March 2009
by: Brian Murphy | Visit article original @ The
Associated Press
Dubai, United Arab Emirates - The Iranian leader's
rebuff on Saturday to President Barack Obama's offer for
dialogue was swift and sweeping: Words from Washington ring
hollow without deep policy changes.
But Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's response
was more than just a dismissive slap at the outreach. It was a
broad lesson in the mind-set of Iran's all-powerful theocracy
and how it will dictate the pace and tone of any new steps by
Obama to chip away at their nearly 30-year diplomatic freeze.
"It's the first stage of the bargaining in classic
Iranian style: Be tough and play up your toughness," said
Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a professor of regional politics at
United Arab Emirates University. "The Iranian leaders are not
about concessions at this stage. It's still all about ideology
from the Iranian side."
For Khamenei and his inner circle, that means
appearing to stay true to the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the
political narrative of rejecting the United States. Any quick
gestures by the ruling clerics to mend ties with Washington
could be perceived by hard-liners as a betrayal of the
revolution.
Iran's non-elected leaders also are carefully
weighing how any openings - even small ones - could affect the
June 12 presidential race between their apparent choice,
hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and reformists led by
a former prime minister, Mir Hossein Mousavi.
"This is why this will be a very slow, very
complicated process between Iran and the United States," said
Abdulla. "Even the theocracy can be pragmatic. When they feel
it's in the national interest to reach out to America, they
will find a way."
There are no signs of a spring thaw.
Khamenei set the bar impossibly high - demanding an
overhaul of U.S. foreign policy, including giving up
"unconditional support" for Israel and halting claims that
Iran is seeking nuclear arms. Iran insists its nuclear program
is only for peaceful energy purposes.
"Have you released Iranian assets? Have you lifted
oppressive sanctions? Have you given up mudslinging and making
accusations against the great Iranian nation and its
officials?" Khamenei said in a speech in the northeastern city
of Mashhad. The crowd chanted "Death to America."
Despite Obama's offer, the State Department still
lists Iran as a sponsor of terrorism for its backing of
militant groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah. In Iraq, U.S.
officials accuse Iran of aiding Shiite militias whose targets
have included American soldiers.
"He (Obama) insulted the Islamic Republic of Iran
from the first day. If you are right that change has come,
where is that change? What is the sign of that change? Make it
clear for us what has changed."
Still, Khamenei left the door open to better ties
with America, saying "should you change, our behavior will
change, too."
Khamenei's response carried a particular bite
following Obama's important shift in U.S. tactics in his video
released Friday, offering to speak directly to Iran's
theocrats rather than encouraging only pro-democracy
reformists inside the country.
The move appears to recognize two key realities for
U.S. policy makers: Iran's establishment is firmly entrenched
and it holds all the cards in all important decisions.
"There's a thinking that they will do what the U.S.
did with Libya: engagement and incentives in return for
moderated policies," said Patrick Clawson, deputy director of
the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "Iran, however,
is a vastly more complicated place that has influence in Iraq,
Afghanistan and across the region."
The Obama administration hasn't outlined details of
its next steps, but White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
told reporters Friday that "many more" initiatives are
expected.
Last week, U.S. officials raised the possibility of
regular diplomatic contacts between U.S. and Iranian diplomats
around the world. On Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and Iranian envoys will have an opportunity for
informal talks on the sidelines of a U.N.-led conference on
Afghanistan at The Hague, Netherlands.
In Iran, any contacts or messages will undoubtedly
be viewed through the prism of the country's presidential
elections.
Some experts believe that Ahmadinejad could benefit
from Obama's overtures by claiming that his tough stance
toward the West brought Washington to the table. Reformers,
meanwhile, could struggle with an identity crisis.
"These are people who considered the U.S. an honest
broker and committed to regime change," said Ilan Berman, an
Iranian affairs specialist at the American Foreign Policy
Council. "Now the reformers are going to feel left out in the
cold."
Saeed Leylaz, a prominent Tehran-based political
analyst, saw Khamenei's tough language as just an opening
flurry in what could be a gradual easing of tensions - similar
to the decades of slow rapprochement with Britain despite a
history of troubles dating back to disputes over oil fields
more than a century ago.
"The U.S. is the sole country in the world capable
of destabilizing Iran. Khamenei is concerned about this," he
said. "If Iran's concerns are eased, it will be willing to
have relations with the U.S. in the same way it has relations
with the U.K."
NEW MONEY, NEW MONEY, NEW MONEY
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE AMERO?
-
This country would be replaced by a common currency
called the "Amero"
and ....
"The Case for the
Amero: The Economics and Politics of a North
American Monetary
...
www.greatdreams.com/political/superhighway_facts.htm
-
Analysts: Dollar collapse would result in 'amero'
· U.S. dollar facing imminent collapse? London stock
trader urges move to 'amero'
...
www.greatdreams.com/political/invasion_of_america.htm
Amero dies
By
News Digital on March 21, 2009
New World Order pox currency acmetal is ACME.
The entire recession-bound world is about to come
down with a bad case of “acme”.
In an article from Agence France-Presse comes word
that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has the
backing of the architect of the euro currency,
Nobel-prize winner Professor Robert Mundell.
“Nazarbayev, speaking at an economic forum in the
glitzy new capital he has built on the Kazakh steppe,
defended his proposal for the “acmetal” world currency
saying it might “look kind of funny” but was not,”
(The Australian, March 11, 2009).
Nazarbayev may have been more forthright had he
said it might “look kind of fishy”.
The “acmetal”, combines the Greek world “acme”,
meaning peak or best, and “capital”.
Call it acmetal in Kazakh. Call it amero in the
headed-for-economic-meltdown United States of America.
That the acmetal now has the backing of a
Canadian-born Nobel-prize winner does not make it any
more palatable.
When it comes to laying the intellectual groundwork
for a single currency, Mundell is king, although he
refers to himself as just “one of several godfathers”.
These godfathers include anti-Americans UN Poster
Boy Maurice Strong and big time speculator George
Soros.
There’s a fishy smell wafting over the pond and it
can be traced right back to acmetal.
In the U.S., experts were predicting three years
ago that the collapse of the dollar was imminent.
“People in the U.S. are going to be hit hard,” says
Bob Chapman publisher of The International Forecaster
newsletter. “In the severe recession we are entering
now, Bush will argue that we have to form a North
American Union to compete with the Euro.” (Debut of
the `amero’, Canada Free Press, Dec. 14, 2006).
Mundell, who backs the acmetal, said on Oct. 14,
1999, “The emerging multi-polar world…presents a
better opportunity to create a world central bank with
a stable international currency than at any previous
time in history.”
Asked in 2003 whether Milton Friedman’s suggestion
that the euro areas could break up within 15 years was
plausible, he responded: “An asteroid could hit our
planet and demolish any area, or a world war could
break out. No currency area is war proof. Even the
US monetary union broke up in 1861.” The UK is, he
says, already losing out by not adopting the euro. He
told the Treasury:
“It has lost foreign direct investment to the euro
areas as a consequence of its fluctuating exchange
rate. It has also lost political influence over other
EU members in matters of economic policy.” (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk,
June 13, 2003).
Born in Canada in 1932, Prof. Mundell received his
BA from the University of British Columbia in 1953.
He studied at the London School of economics and
received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in 1956. From 1966 to 1971, he was
economics professor at the University of Chicago and
editor of the Journal of Political Economy.
“A world central bank controlling all national
monetary policies and currencies–until such time as a
single global currency may be established–is essential
to the one-worlder’s East-West merger scheme.
“As we have seen in the preceding chapter, the
insiders’ penultimate goal is to create regional blocs
in which the nation-states will become so economically
and politically interdependent and integrated that the
nations are subsumed into regional super-governments
(the EU, WHFTA, APEC, etc.) with regional central
banks and regional currencies. Once this is done, it
is small work to merge the regional entities into a
single global government.” - (The UN World Money
System)
“I must say that I agree with President Nazarbayev
on his statement and many of the things he said in his
plan, the project he made for the world currency, and
I believe I’m right on track with what he’s saying,”
Prof. Mundell said, adding the ideas held “great
promise”.
“Mr. Nazarbayev and Prof. Mundell urged the Group
of 20 leading developed and developing economies to
form a working group on the proposal at their summit
on the global economic crisis in London on April 2.
“We should deliver our thoughts and the thoughts of
this conference to the leaders of those countries,”
Mr. Nazarbayev said, referring to the G8 and G20
nations. (The Australian)
The euro, for which Prof. Mundell says his
enthusiasm has not waned, followed a route of stealth
and surprise in that it had already been issued as
replacement currency before the masses could coalesce
to fight it.
Even though the media spotlight is on the plans
being discussed for Obama to be granted an audience
with the Queen at Buckingham Palace on April 1st., the
president will be in London for talks on global
efforts to tackle the recession, central also to
Gordon Brown’s plans for responding to the recession.
While Americans are kept busy with Obama policies
that are dramatically changing their country, will the
`amero’ be unveiled under the name `acmetal’ at the
summit on global economic crisis in London next month?
By Judi McLeod
China Takes Aim at Dollar, Urges New
Global Currency
China calls for the creation of a
new currency to eventually replace the
dollar as the world's standard,
reflecting a growing unhappiness with
the U.S. role in the world economy.
The Wall Street
Journal
FOXNews.com
Monday, March 23, 2009
BEIJING -- China called for the
creation of a new currency to
eventually replace the dollar as the
world's standard, proposing a sweeping
overhaul of global finance that
reflects developing nations' growing
unhappiness with the U.S. role in the
world economy.
The unusual proposal, made by
central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan
in an essay released Monday in
Beijing, is part of China's
increasingly assertive approach to
shaping the global response to the
financial crisis.
Zhou's proposal comes amid
preparations for a summit of the
world's industrial and developing
nations, the Group of 20, in London
next week. At past such meetings,
developed nations have criticized
China's economic and currency
policies.
This time, China is on the
offensive, backed by other emerging
economies such as Russia in making
clear they want a global economic
order less dominated by the U.S. and
other wealthy nations.
However, the technical and
political hurdles to implementing
China's recommendation are enormous,
so even if backed by other nations,
the proposal is unlikely to change the
dollar's role in the short term.
Central banks around the world hold
more U.S. dollars and dollar
securities than they do assets
denominated in any other individual
foreign currency. Such reserves can be
used to stabilize the value of the
central banks' domestic currencies.
Monday's proposal follows a similar
one Russia made this month during
preparations for the G20 meeting. Like
China, Russia recommended that the
International Monetary Fund might
issue the currency, and emphasized the
need to update "the obsolescent
unipolar world economic order."
Chinese officials are frustrated at
their financial dependence on the
U.S., with Premier Wen Jiabao this
month publicly expressing "worries"
over China's significant holdings of
U.S. government bonds. The size of
those holdings means the value of the
national rainy-day fund is mainly
driven by factors China has little
control over, such as fluctuations in
the value of the dollar and changes in
U.S. economic policies. While Chinese
banks have weathered the global
downturn and continue to lend, the
collapse in demand for the nation's
exports has shuttered factories and
left millions jobless.
Continue reading at the Wall Street
Journal
THE G-20 MEETING
France's PM Pushes
Financial Reform Ahead
of G-20 Meeting
By Julia Ritchey
Washington
24 March 2009 French PM Francois
Fillon speaks at the
French National
Assembly in Paris, 17
Mar 2009
French Prime Minister
François Fillon is in
Washington to garner
support for tougher
international financial
regulations ahead of the
April 2 Group of 20
economic summit in London.
While the Obama
administration wants
Europe to increase its
fiscal stimulus to solve
the global economic
crisis, the French prime
minister says financial
reforms must first be
addressed.
French Prime Minister
François Fillon says it is
the duty of the G-20 group
of the world's largest
developed and emerging
economies next month to
achieve concrete results
in resolving the global
economic crisis. He says
the best way to do this is
by agreeing to stricter
oversight of international
financial institutions.
In a speech at the
Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace in
Washington on Monday, Mr.
Fillon listed four key
issues that France wants
to top the agenda at the
economic summit.
Mr. Fillon said the four
pillars for lasting
recovery are reforming
financial regulations,
supporting economic
growth, rescuing banks and
providing aid to the
countries suffering most
from the economic crisis.
In addition, he said hedge
funds must be subject to
real oversight. Ratings
agencies, which Mr. Fillon
said helped fuel the
crisis, must adopt rules
for dealing with conflicts
of interest and offshore
banking centers, which
often allow clients to
evade paying taxes in
their home countries, need
to be vigorously
regulated.
Mr. Fillon also struck
back at critics in the
media and within the Obama
administration who say
Europe needs to spend more
on government economic
stimulus.
The French prime minister
said the crisis was
created by an excess of
public debt and that it
will not be solved by
creating even more. He
says European Union member
states already have
implemented large stimulus
packages that account for
more than three percent of
Europe's gross domestic
product.
Mr. Fillon expressed
confidence in U.S.
Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner's newest
initiative to help
stabilize the banking
system by providing
guarantees and
low-interest loans to
investors willing to
purchase toxic assets from
banks.
Mr. Fillon said he prefers
the idea of a
public-private partnership
to buy up the bad assets,
and that this will prompt
European countries to
consider similar measures.
While in Washington, Mr.
Fillon also met with Vice
President Joe Biden and
Lawrence Summers, the head
of President Barack
Obama's National Economic
Council.
|
EXODUS 22:1
New
American Standard Bible
(©1995)
"If a man steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells
it, he shall pay five oxen for the ox and four sheep for the
sheep.
|
STEALING SHEEP ACCORDING TO JESUS
John 10
1Then
Jesus went on to say, `I tell you the truth. A person must get to
the sheep through the door. Anyone who climbs over the wall to get
in is a bad man and steals things. He has come to steal the sheep.
2But the
man who comes in through the door, he is the one who takes care of
the sheep.
3The guard
will open the door for him. The sheep will listen to him. He calls
his own sheep by their names and leads them out.
4When all
his own sheep are out of the house, he goes ahead of them. The sheep
come behind him because they know his voice.
5They will
not go after a stranger. They will run away from him because they do
not know the voice of strangers.'
6Jesus
told this story to the Pharisees, but they did not understand what
he was trying to tell them.
7So Jesus
told them again. He said, `I tell you the truth. I am the door of
the sheep house.
8All those
who came before me are bad people and steal things. They came to
steal the sheep. But the sheep did not listen to them.
9I am the
door. Anyone who comes in through me will be saved. He will go in
and out as he wants to, and will have food to eat.
10The
thief comes only to steal the sheep and to kill them and spoil them.
I have come so that people may live and that they may enjoy life to
the full.
11`I am
the good shepherd. I am the one who really cares for the sheep. The
good shepherd is willing to die to save his sheep.
12Some
people work for pay. The one who does that is not the one who really
cares. The sheep do not belong to him. When he sees a bad animal
coming, he will leave the sheep and run away. He will let the animal
take the sheep and make the sheep run away.
13He does
that because he is only working for pay and does not care what
happens to the sheep.
14`I am
the good shepherd, the one who really cares for the sheep. I know my
sheep and my sheep know me.
15So my
Father knows me and I know him. I am willing to die to save the
sheep.
16`I have
some other sheep which are not with these sheep. I must bring them
also. They will listen to my voice. Then all the sheep will be
together and there will be one person who cares for all of them.
17My
Father loves me because I am willing to die. But when I die, I will
live again.
18No one
kills me. I die only because I choose to die. I have power to die
and I have power to live again. This is what my Father has told me
to do.'
19The
Jews did not all say the same thing because of what Jesus said.
20Many of
them said, `A bad spirit is in him. He is crazy. Why do you listen
to him?'
21But
others said, `A person who has a bad spirit in him does not say the
things this man says. Can a bad spirit make blind people see?'
22At that
time there was a feast in Jerusalem at the temple. It was the cold
time of the year.
23Jesus
was walking in that part of the temple called Solomon's resting
place.
24The
Jews came around Jesus and said, `How long will you keep us
wondering about this matter? If you are really the Christ, then tell
us plainly.'
25Then
Jesus said, `I have already told you and you did not believe it. My
Father has given me the power to do big works. These works tell you
who I am.
26And yet
you do not believe because you are not my sheep. I told you this
before.
27My
sheep listen to me. I know them. They come to me.
28I give
them life that lasts for ever. They will never die. No one will take
them out of my hand.
29My
Father gave the sheep to me. He is greater than anyone else. No one
is able to take them out of my Father's hand.
30My
Father and I are one.'
31Then
the leaders of the Jews picked up stones again to kill him.
32So
Jesus said to them, `I have done many good things that come from my
Father. For which one of those are you going to kill me?'
33Then
the Jewish leaders answered him, `We do not kill you for doing any
good thing. But you do not respect God. You are only a man, and yet
you say you are God.'
34Jesus
answered them, `In your own books it is written that God said, "You
are gods."
36Nothing
can change the words in the holy writings. It is written that God
spoke to men and that he called them gods. So he called some men
gods. Then why do you say I do not respect God when I say that I am
the Son of God? I am the one God chose and sent into the world.
37If I am
not doing my Father's work, then do not believe me.
38But if
I am doing my Father's work, believe the work that I do, even though
you do not believe me. Then you will know and you will believe that
my Father is in me and I am in him.'
39Because
of what he said, they tried to catch Jesus again. But he got away
from them.
40He went
away again to the other side of the Jordan River. He went to the
place where John [the Baptizer] was when he first baptized people.
Jesus stayed there for a while.
41Many
people came to him there. They said, `John himself did not do any
big work. But everything that John said about this man is true.'
42Many
people believed on Jesus there.
REMEMBER THE BUTHERED - SKINNED ANIMALS IN ONE OF THE DREAMS?
GovTrack.us
|
Text of H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009
|
This
version: Introduced in House. This is the original text of
the bill as it was written by its sponsor and submitted to the House
for consideration. The changed and latest versions of the Bill will be
posted as updated on Thomas - see link on the left.
To establish the Food Safety
Administration within the Department of Health and Human
Services to protect the public health by preventing food-borne
illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on
contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving
security of food from intentional contamination, and for other
purposes.
IN THE HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES
Ms. DELAURO (for herself, Ms.
ESHOO, Ms. DEGETTE, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. ENGEL, Ms. CASTOR of
Florida, Mr. MURPHY of Connecticut, Ms. SUTTON, Mrs. LOWEY,
Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr. MCGOVERN, Ms. WASSERMAN
SCHULTZ, Ms. HIRONO, Mr. GRIJALVA, Mr. SCHAUER, Mr. NADLER of
New York, Mr. BISHOP of New York, Ms. LINDA T. SANCHEZ of
California, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, Ms. GIFFORDS, Mr.
FILNER, Mr. HALL of New York, Ms. LEE of California, Ms.
PINGREE of Maine, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Ms. MOORE
of Wisconsin, and Mr. DEFAZIO) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce,
and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period
to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for
consideration of such provisions as fall within the
jurisdiction of the committee concerned
To establish the Food Safety
Administration within the Department of Health and Human
Services to protect the public health by preventing food-borne
illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on
contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving
security of food from intentional contamination, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate
and House of Representatives of the United States of America
in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
(a) Short Title- This Act may be
cited as the ‘Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009’.
(b) Table of Contents- The table
of contents of this Act is as follows:
TITLE I--ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FOOD SAFETY ADMINISTRATION
TITLE II--ADMINISTRATION OF FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM
TITLE III--RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSES.
(a) Findings- Congress finds
that--
(1) the safety of the food
supply of the United States is vital to the public health,
to public confidence in the food supply, and to the
success of the food sector of the Nation’s economy;
(2) lapses in the protection
of the food supply and loss of public confidence in food
safety are damaging to consumers and the food industry,
and place a burden on interstate commerce and
international trade;
(3) recent ongoing events
demonstrate that the food safety program at the Food and
Drug Administration is not effective in controlling
hazards in food coming from farms and factories in the
United States and food and food ingredients coming from
foreign countries, and these events have adversely
affected consumer confidence;
(4) the safety and security of
the food supply require a systemwide approach to prevent
food-borne illness involving the integrated efforts of
Federal, State and local agencies; a thorough,
broad-based, and coordinated approach to basic and applied
science; and intensive, effective, and efficient
management of the Nation’s food safety program;
(5) the task of preserving the
safety of the food supply of the United States faces
tremendous pressures with regard to--
(A) emerging pathogens and
other contaminants and the ability to detect all forms
of contamination;
(B) the threat of
intentional contamination of the food supply;
(C) a growing number of
people at high risk for food-borne illnesses, including
an increasing population of aging and immune-compromised
consumers, together with infants and children;
(D) an increasing volume of
imported food, without adequate monitoring, inspection,
and systems for prevention of food safety problems; and
(E) maintenance of rigorous
inspection of the domestic food processing and food
service industries;
(6) Federal food safety
standard setting, inspection, enforcement, and research
efforts should be based on the best available science and
public health considerations, and food safety resources
should be systematically deployed in ways that most
effectively prevent food-borne illness;
(7) the Food and Drug
Administration, an agency within the Department of Health
and Human Services, has regulatory jurisdiction over the
safety and labeling of 80 percent of the American food
supply, encompassing all foods except meat, poultry, and
egg products, as well as drugs, medical devices, and
biologics;
(8) rapid technological
advance and the expansion and globalization of industries
in all areas of Food and Drug Administration jurisdiction
present challenges and require leadership beyond the
capacity of any one agency or agency head to provide;
(9) in the food safety area,
the Food and Drug Administration implements provisions of
the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act that are 70 years
old and that antiquated law limits the Food and Drug
Administration’s role largely to reacting to and
correcting food safety problems after they occur, rather
than working with the food industry to systematically
prevent problems;
(10) the Food and Drug
Administration’s effectiveness is further impaired by
fragmentation of leadership and management within the
Administration, as major food safety responsibilities are
dispersed across the Administration’s Center for Food
Safety and Applied Nutrition, Center for Veterinary
Medicine, and Office of Regulatory Affairs;
(11) there is no official with
the full-time responsibility and budget authority for food
safety at the Food and Drug Administration and food safety
competes unsuccessfully with the drug and medical device
programs for senior agency management attention and
resources; and
(12) improving Federal
oversight of food safety requires a modern food safety
mandate, clear authorities, and a dedicated official
within the Department of Health and Human Services with
budget authority to manage an integrated organizational
structure and report directly to the Secretary.
(b) Purposes- The purposes of
this Act are--
(1) to establish an agency
within the Department of Health and Human Services to be
known as the ‘Food Safety Administration’ to--
(A) regulate food safety and
labeling to strengthen the protection of the public
health;
(B) ensure that food
establishments fulfill their responsibility to process,
store, hold, and transport food in a manner that
protects the public health of all people in the United
States;
(C) lead an integrated,
systemwide approach to food safety and to make more
effective and efficient use of resources to prevent
food-borne illness;
(D) provide a single focal
point within the Department of Health and Human Services
for food safety leadership, both nationally and
internationally; and
(E) provide an integrated
food safety research capability, including internally
generated, scientifically and statistically valid
studies, in cooperation with academic institutions and
other scientific entities of the Federal and State
governments;
(2) to transfer to the Food
Safety Administration the food safety, labeling,
inspection, and enforcement functions that, as of the day
before the date of the enactment of this Act, are
performed by various components of the Food and Drug
Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration;
(3) to modernize and
strengthen the Federal food safety law to ensure more
effective application and efficient management of the laws
for the protection and improvement of public health; and
(4) to establish that food
establishments have responsibility to ensure that all
stages of production, processing, and distribution of
their products or products under their control satisfy the
requirements of this law.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) ADMINISTRATION- The term
‘Administration’ means the Food Safety Administration
established under section 101(a)(1).
(2) ADMINISTRATOR- The term
‘Administrator’ means the Administrator of Food Safety
appointed under section 101(a)(2).
(3) ADULTERATED-
(A) IN GENERAL- The term
‘adulterated’ has the meaning given that term in section
402 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21
U.S.C. 342).
(B) INCLUSION- The term
‘adulterated’ includes bearing or containing a
contaminant that causes illness or death among sensitive
populations.
(5) CATEGORY 1 FOOD
ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 1 food establishment’
means a food establishment (other than a seafood
processing establishment) that slaughters, for the purpose
of producing food, animals that are not subject to
inspection under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or
poultry that are not subject to inspection under the
Poultry Products Inspection Act.
(6) CATEGORY 2 FOOD
ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 2 food establishment’
means a seafood processing establishment or other food
establishment (other than a category 1 establishment) not
subject to inspection under the Federal Meat Inspection
Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act, or the Egg
Products Inspection Act, that processes raw seafood or
other raw animal products, whether fresh or frozen, or
other products that the Administrator determines by
regulation to pose a significant risk of hazardous
contamination.
(7) CATEGORY 3 FOOD
ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 3 food establishment’
means a food establishment (other than a category 1 or
category 2 establishment) that processes cooked,
pasteurized, or otherwise ready-to-eat seafood or other
animal products, fresh produce in ready-to-eat raw form,
or other products that pose a risk of hazardous
contamination.
(8) CATEGORY 4 FOOD
ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 4 food establishment’
means a food establishment that processes all other
categories of food products not described in paragraphs
(5) through (7).
(9) CATEGORY 5 FOOD
ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘category 5 food establishment’
means a food establishment that stores, holds, or
transports food products prior to delivery for retail
sale.
(10) CONTAMINANT- The term
‘contaminant’ includes a bacterium, chemical, natural
toxin or manufactured toxicant, virus, parasite, prion,
physical hazard, or other human pathogen that when found
on or in food can cause human illness, injury, or death.
(11) HAZARDOUS CONTAMINATION-
The term ‘hazardous contamination’ refers to the presence
of a contaminant in food at levels that pose a risk of
human illness, injury, or death or are capable of reaching
levels that pose such risk during the shelf life of the
product.
(12) FOOD- The term ‘food’
means a product intended to be used for food or drink for
a human or an animal and components thereof.
(13) FOOD ESTABLISHMENT-
(A) IN GENERAL- The term
‘food establishment’ means a slaughterhouse (except
those regulated under the Federal Meat Inspection Act or
the Poultry Products Inspection Act), factory,
warehouse, or facility owned or operated by a person
located in any State that processes food or a facility
that holds, stores, or transports food or food
ingredients.
(B) EXCLUSIONS- For the
purposes of registration, the term ‘food establishment’
does not include a food production facility as defined
in paragraph (14), restaurant, other retail food
establishment, nonprofit food establishment in which
food is prepared for or served directly to the consumer,
or fishing vessel (other than a fishing vessel engaged
in processing, as that term is defined in section 123.3
of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations).
(14) FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITY-
The term ‘food production facility’ means any farm, ranch,
orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined
animal-feeding operation.
(15) FOOD SAFETY LAW- The term
‘food safety law’ means--
(A) the provisions of the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21
U.S.C. 301 et seq.) related to and requiring the
safety, quality, nutritional composition, labeling, and
inspection of food, infant formulas, food additives,
pesticide residues, and other substances present in
food;
(B) the provisions of the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21
U.S.C. 301 et 11 seq.) and of any other Acts that
are administered by the Center for Veterinary Medicine
of the Food and Drug Administration;
(C) the provisions of the
Public Health Service Act that relate in any way to
studying, surveying, containing, or preventing
food-borne illness; and
(D) the provisions of this
Act.
(16) FOREIGN FOOD
ESTABLISHMENT- The term ‘foreign food establishment’ means
any category 1 through 5 food establishment or food
production facility located outside the United States that
processes or produces food or food ingredients for
consumption in the United States.
(17) INTERSTATE COMMERCE- The
term ‘interstate commerce’ has the meaning given that term
in section 201(b) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic
Act (21
U.S.C. 321(b)).
(18) MISBRANDED- The term
‘misbranded’ has the meaning given that term in section
403 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21
U.S.C. 343).
(19) PROCESS- The term
‘process’ or ‘processing’ means the commercial slaughter,
packing, preparation, or manufacture of food.
(20) STATE- The term ‘State’
means--
(B) the District of
Columbia;
(C) the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico; and
(D) any other territory or
possession of the United States.
TITLE I--ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FOOD SAFETY ADMINISTRATION
SEC. 101. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FOOD SAFETY ADMINISTRATION.
(a) Establishment-
(1) IN GENERAL- There is
established in the Department of Health and Human Services
an agency to be known as the ‘Food Safety Administration’.
(2) HEAD OF THE
ADMINISTRATION- The Administration shall be headed by the
Administrator of Food Safety, who shall be appointed by
the President, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, for a term of 5 years, and who may be reappointed.
(3) DELEGATION- All the
authorities and responsibilities assigned to the Secretary
of Health and Human Services in the food safety law are
hereby assigned to the Administrator.
(b) Duties of Administrator- The
Administrator shall--
(1) administer and enforce the
food safety law;
(2) serve as the food safety
leader within the Department of Health and Human Services
and coordinator of all Department activities related to
ensuring the safety, quality, and proper labeling of the
food supply;
(3) represent the United
States in relevant international food safety bodies and
discussions;
(4) promulgate regulations to
ensure the safety and security of the food supply from all
forms of contamination, including intentional
contamination; and
(5) oversee within the
Department of Health and Human Services--
(A) in consultation with the
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, all activities related to foodborne illness
surveillance and investigation of foodborne illness
outbreaks;
(B) implementation of food
safety inspection, enforcement, and research efforts to
protect the public health;
(C) development of
consistent and science-based standards for safe food;
(D) coordination and
prioritization of food safety research and education
programs with other Federal agencies;
(E) prioritization of food
safety efforts and deployment of food safety resources
to achieve the greatest possible benefit in reducing
food-borne illness;
(F) coordination of the
response to food-borne illness outbreaks with other
Federal and State agencies; and
(G) integration of food
safety activities with State and local agencies.
SEC. 102. CONSOLIDATION OF FOOD SAFETY FUNCTIONS.
(a) Transfer of Functions and
Resources- For each component of the Department of Health
and Human Services or the Department of Commerce specified
in subsection (b), there are transferred to the
Administration all functions, personnel, and assets
(including facilities and financial resources) of those
components as of the day before the date of the enactment of
this Act (including all related functions of any officer or
employee of the component) that relate to administration or
enforcement of the food safety law, as determined by the
President.
(b) Transferred Functions and
Resources- The components referred to in subsection (a)
are--
(1) the Center for Food Safety
and Applied Nutrition of the Food and Drug Administration;
(2) the Center for Veterinary
Medicine of the Food and Drug Administration;
(3) the National Center for
Toxicological Research of the Food and Drug
Administration;
(4) the personnel and assets
of the Office of Regulatory Affairs of the Food and Drug
Administration used to administer and conduct inspections
of food establishments and imports and conduct laboratory
analyses and other investigations relating to food safety
and enforcement of the food safety law;
(5) the personnel and assets
of the Office of the Commissioner of Food and Drugs used
to support--
(A) the Center for Food
Safety and Applied Nutrition;
(B) the Center for
Veterinary Medicine;
(C) the National Center for
Toxicological Research; and
(D) the personnel and assets
of the Office of Regulatory Affairs described in
paragraph (4); and
(6) the personnel and assets
of the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the Department
of Commerce used to administer the seafood inspection
program.
(c) Renaming and Reservation of
Agency Identity- The Food and Drug Administration in the
Department of Health and Human Services is hereby renamed
the Federal Drug and Device Administration and may be
referred to as ‘FDA’.
(d) Sharing of Facilities and
Resources- The Food Safety Administration and the Federal
Drug and Device Administration shall enter into such
agreements concerning the sharing of facilities and other
resources as may be appropriate to make efficient use of
such facilities and resources and achieve their respective
missions.
SEC. 103. ADDITIONAL DUTIES OF THE ADMINISTRATION.
(a) Officers and Employees- The
Administrator may--
(1) appoint officers and
employees for the Administration in accordance with the
provisions of title 5, United States Code, relating to
appointment in the competitive service; and
(2) fix the compensation of
those officers and employees in accordance with chapter 51
and with subchapter III of chapter 53 of that title,
relating to classification and General Schedule pay rates.
(b) Experts and Consultants- The
Administrator may--
(2) pay in connection with
those services the travel expenses of the experts and
consultants, including transportation and per diem in lieu
of subsistence while away from the homes or regular places
of business of the individuals, as authorized by section
5703 of that title.
(c) Bureaus, Offices, and
Divisions- The Administrator may establish within the
Administration such bureaus, offices, and divisions as the
Administrator determines are necessary to perform the duties
of the Administrator.
(d) Advisory Committees-
(1) IN GENERAL- The
Administrator shall establish advisory committees that
consist of representatives of scientific expert bodies,
academics, industry specialists, and consumers.
(2) DUTIES- The duties of an
advisory committee established under paragraph (1) may
include developing recommendations with respect to the
development of new processes, research, communications,
performance standards, and inspection.
TITLE II--ADMINISTRATION OF FOOD SAFETY PROGRAM
SEC. 201. ADMINISTRATION OF NATIONAL PROGRAM.
(a) In General- The
Administrator shall--
(1) develop, administer, and
annually update a national food safety program (referred
to in this section as the ‘program’) to protect public
health; and
(2) ensure that persons who
produce, process, or distribute food meet their
responsibility to prevent or minimize food safety hazards
related to their products.
(b) Comprehensive Analysis- The
program shall be based on a comprehensive analysis of the
hazards associated with different food and with the
processing of different food, including the identification
and evaluation of--
(1) the severity of the
potential health risks;
(2) the sources of potentially
hazardous contamination or practices extending from the
farm or ranch to the consumer that may increase the risk
of food-borne illness;
(3) the potential for
persistence, multiplication, or concentration of naturally
occurring or added contaminants in food;
(4) the potential for
hazardous contamination to have cumulative toxic effects,
multigenerational effects, or effects on specific
categories of consumers;
(5) opportunities across the
food production, processing, distribution, and retail
system to reduce potential health risks; and
(6) opportunities for
intentional contamination of food or food ingredients.
(c) Program Elements- In
carrying out the program, the Administrator shall--
(1) adopt and implement a
national system for the registration of food
establishments and foreign food establishments, as
provided in section 202 of this Act;
(2) adopt and implement a
national system for regular unannounced inspection of food
establishments;
(3) require and enforce the
adoption of preventive process controls in food
establishments, based on the best available scientific and
public health considerations and best available
technologies;
(4) establish and enforce
science-based standards for--
(A) potentially hazardous
substances that may contaminate food; and
(B) safety and sanitation in
the processing and handling of food;
(5) implement a statistically
valid sampling program with the stringency and frequency
to independently monitor that industry programs and
procedures that prevent food contamination are effective
on an ongoing basis and that food meets the standards
established under this Act;
(6) implement appropriate
surveillance procedures and requirements to ensure the
safety and security of imported food;
(7) coordinate and collaborate
with other agencies and State or local governments in
carrying out inspection, enforcement, research, and
monitoring;
(8) implement a national
system to identify the food products posing the greatest
public health risk and to analyze the effectiveness of
existing food safety programs, in conjunction with the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other
Federal agencies;
(9) develop public education,
risk communication, and advisory programs;
(10) implement an applied
research program to further the purposes of this Act;
(11) coordinate and prioritize
food safety research and educational programs with other
Federal agencies and with State and local governments; and
(12) provide technical
assistance to farmers and food establishments that are
small business concerns (meeting the requirements of
section 3(a) of the Small Business Act and the regulations
promulgated thereunder) to assist with compliance with the
requirements of this Act.
SEC. 202. REGISTRATION OF FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS AND FOREIGN FOOD
ESTABLISHMENTS.
(a) In General- Any food
establishment or foreign food establishment engaged in
manufacturing, processing, packing, or holding food for
consumption in the United States shall register annually
with the Administrator.
(b) Registration Requirements-
(1) IN GENERAL- To be
registered under subsection (a), a food establishment
shall submit a registration or reregistration to the
Administrator.
(2) REGISTRATION- Registration
under this section shall begin within 90 days of the
enactment of this Act. Each such registration shall be
submitted to the Secretary through an electronic portal
and shall contain such information as the Secretary, by
guidance, determines to be appropriate. Such registration
shall contain the following information:
(A) The name, address, and
emergency contact information of each domestic food
establishment or foreign food establishment that the
registrant owns or operates under this Act and all trade
names under which the registrant conducts business in
the United States relating to food.
(B) The primary purpose and
business activity of each domestic food establishment or
foreign food establishment, including the dates of
operation if the domestic food establishment or foreign
food establishment is seasonal.
(C) The types of food
processed or sold at each domestic food establishment
or, for foreign food establishments selling food for
consumption in the United States, the specific food
categories of that food as listed under section 170.3(n)
of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations, or such other
categories as the Administrator may designate in
guidance, action level, or regulations for evaluating
potential threats to food protection.
(D) The name, address, and
24-hour emergency contact information of the United
States distribution agent for each domestic food
establishment or foreign food establishment, who shall
maintain information on the distribution of food,
including lot information, and wholesaler and retailer
distribution.
(E) An assurance that the
registrant will notify the Administrator of any change
in the products, function, or legal status of the
domestic food establishment or foreign food
establishment (including cessation of business
activities) not later than 30 days after such change.
(3) PROCEDURE- Upon receipt of
a completed registration described in paragraph (1), the
Administrator shall notify the registrant of the receipt
of the registration, designate each establishment as a
category 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 food establishment, and assign a
registration number to each domestic food establishment
and foreign food establishment.
(4) LIST- The Administrator
shall annually compile a list of domestic food
establishments and a list of foreign food establishments
that are registered under this section. The Administrator
may establish the manner of and any fees required for
reregistration and any circumstances by which either such
list may be shared with other governmental authorities.
The Administrator may remove from either list the name of
any establishment that fails to reregister, and such
delisting shall be treated as a suspension.
(5) DISCLOSURE EXEMPTION- The
disclosure requirements under
section 552 of title 5, United States Code, shall not
apply to--
(A) the list compiled under
paragraph (4); and
(B) information derived from
the list under paragraph (4), to the extent that it
discloses the identity or location of a specific person.
(6) SUSPENSION OF
REGISTRATION-
(A) IN GENERAL- The
Administrator may suspend the registration of a domestic
food establishment or foreign food establishment,
including the facility of an importer, for violation of
a food safety law that is either repeated or could
result in serious adverse health consequences or death
to humans or animals.
(B) NOTICE AND OPPORTUNITY
FOR HEARING- The Administrator shall provide notice of
an intent to suspend the registration of an
establishment under this paragraph to a registrant and
provide the registrant with an opportunity for an
administrative hearing within 3 days. The Administrator
may issue a written order of suspension following the
hearing, if the Administrator finds that a violation
described in subparagraph (A) has occurred.
(C) JUDICIAL REVIEW- The
issuance of an order of suspension under subparagraph
(B) shall be considered to be a final agency action
subject to judicial review in accordance with the
provisions of chapter 7 of title 5, United States Code.
(7) REINSTATEMENT- A
registration that is suspended under this section may be
reinstated based on a showing that adequate process
controls have been instituted that would prevent future
violations and there are assurances from the registrant
that the violations will not be repeated.
(c) Transitional Provision-
During the 6-month period following the date of the
enactment of this Act, a food establishment is deemed to be
registered in accordance with this section if the
establishment is registered under section 415 of the Federal
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21
U.S.C. 350d).
(d) Repeal- Effective at the end
of the 6-month period following the date of the enactment of
this Act, section 415 of the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act (21
U.S.C. 350d) is repealed.
SEC. 203. PREVENTIVE PROCESS CONTROLS TO REDUCE ADULTERATION
OF FOOD.
(a) In General- The
Administrator shall, upon the basis of best available public
health, scientific, and technological data, promulgate
regulations to ensure that food establishments carry out
their responsibilities under the food safety law.
(b) Regulations- Not later than
1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
Administrator shall promulgate regulations that require all
food establishments, within time frames determined by the
Administrator--
(1) to adopt preventive
process controls that--
(A) reflect the standards
and procedures recognized by relevant authoritative
bodies;
(B) are adequate to protect
the public health;
(C) meet relevant regulatory
and food safety standards;
(D) limit the presence and
growth of contaminants in food prepared in a food
establishment using the best reasonably available
techniques and technologies; and
(E) are tailored to the
hazards and processes in particular establishments or
environments;
(2) to establish a sanitation
plan and program that meets standards set by the
Administrator;
(3) to meet performance
standards for hazardous contamination established under
section 204;
(4) to implement recordkeeping
to monitor compliance with regulatory requirements;
(5) to implement recordkeeping
and labeling of all food and food ingredients to
facilitate their identification and traceability in the
event of a recall or market removal;
(6) to implement product and
environmental sampling at a frequency and in a manner
sufficient to ensure that process controls are effective
on an ongoing basis and that regulatory standards are
being met;
(7) to label food intended for
final processing outside commercial food establishments
with instructions for handling and preparation for
consumption that will destroy microbial contaminants; and
(8) to provide for agency
access to records kept by the food establishments and
submission of copies of records to the Administrator, as
the Administrator determines appropriate.
(c) Specific Hazard Controls-
The Administrator may require any person with responsibility
for or control over food or food ingredients to adopt
specific hazard controls, if such controls are needed to
ensure the protection of the public health.
SEC. 204. PERFORMANCE STANDARDS FOR CONTAMINANTS IN FOOD.
(a) In General- To protect the
public health, the Administrator shall establish by guidance
document, action level, or regulation and enforce
performance standards that define, with respect to specific
foods and contaminants in food, the level of food safety
performance that a person responsible for producing,
processing, or selling food shall meet.
(b) Identification of
Contaminants; Performance Standards-
(1) LIST OF CONTAMINANTS- Not
later than 6 months after the date of the enactment of
this Act, the Administrator shall publish in the Federal
Register a list of the contaminants in foods that have the
greatest adverse impact on public health in terms of the
number and severity of illnesses and number of deaths
associated with foods regulated under this Act. Where
appropriate, the Administrator shall indicate whether the
risk posed by a contaminant is generalized or specific to
particular foods or ingredients.
(2) PERFORMANCE STANDARDS-
(A) ESTABLISHMENT- The
Administrator shall establish by guidance document,
action level, or regulation a performance standard for
each contaminant in the list under paragraph (1) at
levels appropriate to protect against the potential
adverse health effects of the contaminant.
(B) TIMING- The
Administrator shall establish a performance standard
under subparagraph (A) for each contaminant in the list
under paragraph (1)--
(i) as soon as
practicable; or
(ii) in the case of a
contaminant described in subparagraph (C), by the date
described in such subparagraph.
(C) SIGNIFICANT
CONTAMINANTS- The list under paragraph (1) (and any
revision thereto) shall identify the 5 most significant
contaminants in the list (in terms of the number and
severity of illnesses and number of deaths associated
with foods regulated under this Act). Not later than 3
years after a contaminant is so identified, the
Administrator shall promulgate a performance standard
under subparagraph (A) for the contaminant.
(3) REVIEW; REVISION- Not less
than every 3 years, the Administrator shall review and, if
necessary, revise--
(A) the list of contaminants
under paragraph (1); and
(B) each performance
standard established under paragraph (2).
(c) Performance Standards-
(1) IN GENERAL- The
performance standards established under this section may
include--
(A) health-based standards
that set the level of a contaminant that can safely and
lawfully be present in food;
(B) zero tolerances,
including any zero tolerance performance standards in
effect on the day before the date of the enactment of
this Act, when necessary to protect against significant
adverse health outcomes;
(C) process standards, such
as log reduction criteria for cooked products, when
sufficient to ensure the safety of processed food; and
(D) in the absence of data
to support a performance standard described in
subparagraph (A), (B), or (C), standards that define
required performance on the basis of reliable
information on the best reasonably achievable
performance, using best available technologies,
interventions, and practices.
(2) BEST REASONABLY ACHIEVABLE
PERFORMANCE STANDARDS- In developing best reasonably
achievable performance standards under paragraph (1)(D),
the Administrator shall collect, or contract for the
collection of, data on current best practices and food
safety outcomes related to the contaminants and foods in
question, as the Administrator determines necessary.
(3) REVOCATION BY
ADMINISTRATOR- All performance standards, tolerances,
action levels, or other similar standards in effect on the
date of the enactment of this Act shall remain in effect
until revised or revoked by the Administrator.
(d) Enforcement-
(1) IN GENERAL- In conjunction
with the establishment of a performance standard under
this section, the Administrator shall develop a
statistically valid sampling program with the stringency
and frequency sufficient to independently monitor whether
food establishments are complying with the performance
standard and implement the program within 1 year of the
promulgation of the standard.
(2) INSPECTIONS- If the
Administrator determines that a food establishment fails
to meet a standard promulgated under this section, the
Administrator shall, as appropriate--
(A) detain, seize, or
condemn food from the food establishment under section
402;
(B) order a recall of food
from the food establishment under section 403;
(C) increase the inspection
frequency for the food establishment;
(D) withdraw the mark of
inspection from the food establishment, if in use; or
(E) take other appropriate
enforcement action concerning the food establishment,
including withdrawal of registration.
(e) Newly Identified
Contaminants- Notwithstanding any other provision of this
section, the Administrator shall establish interim
performance standards for newly identified contaminants as
necessary to protect the public health.
SEC. 205. INSPECTIONS OF FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS.
(a) In General- The
Administrator shall establish an inspection program, which
shall include statistically valid sampling of food and
facilities to enforce performance standards. The inspection
program shall be designed to determine if each food
establishment--
(1) is operated in a sanitary
manner;
(2) has continuous preventive
control systems, interventions, and processes in place to
minimize or eliminate contaminants in food;
(3) is in compliance with
applicable performance standards established under section
204, and other regulatory requirements;
(4) is processing food that is
not adulterated or misbranded;
(5) maintains records of
process control plans under section 203, and other records
related to the processing, sampling, and handling of food;
and
(6) is otherwise in compliance
with the requirements of the food safety law.
(b) Establishment Categories and
Inspection Frequencies- The resource plan required under
section 209, including the description of resources required
to carry out inspections of food establishments, shall be
based on the following categories and inspection
frequencies, subject to subsections (c), (d), and (e):
(1) CATEGORY 1 FOOD
ESTABLISHMENTS- A category 1 food establishment shall be
subject to antemortem, postmortem, and continuous
inspection of each slaughter line during all operating
hours, and other inspection on a daily basis, sufficient
to verify that--
(A) diseased animals are not
offered for slaughter;
(B) the food establishment
has successfully identified and removed from the
slaughter line visibly defective or contaminated
carcasses, has avoided cross-contamination, and has
destroyed or reprocessed such carcasses in a manner
acceptable to the Administrator; and
(C) applicable performance
standards and other provisions of the food safety law,
including those intended to eliminate or reduce
pathogens, have been satisfied.
(2) CATEGORY 2 FOOD
ESTABLISHMENTS- A category 2 food establishment shall--
(A) have ongoing
verification that its processes are controlled; and
(B) be randomly inspected at
least weekly.
(3) CATEGORY 3 FOOD
ESTABLISHMENTS- A category 3 food establishment shall--
(A) have ongoing
verification that its processes are controlled; and
(B) be randomly inspected at
least monthly.
(4) CATEGORY 4 FOOD
ESTABLISHMENTS- A category 4 food establishment shall--
(A) have ongoing
verification that its processes are controlled; and
(B) be randomly inspected at
least quarterly.
(5) CATEGORY 5 FOOD
ESTABLISHMENTS- A category 5 food establishment shall--
(A) have ongoing
verification that its processes are controlled; and
(B) be randomly inspected at
least annually.
(c) Establishment of Inspection
Procedures- The Administrator shall establish procedures
under which inspectors shall take random samples,
photographs, and copies of records in food establishments.
(d) Alternative Inspection
Frequencies- With respect to a subcategory of food
establishment under category 2, 3, 4, or 5, the
Administrator may establish alternative increasing or
decreasing inspection frequencies for subcategories of food
establishments or individual establishments, to foster
risk-based allocation of resources. Before establishing an
alternative inspection frequency for a subcategory of food
establishments or individual establishments, the
Administrator shall take into consideration the evidence
described in paragraph (2)(D) and the overall record of
compliance described in paragraph (2)(E) for such
subcategory. In establishing alternative inspection
frequencies under this subsection, the Administrator shall
comply with the following criteria and procedures:
(1) Subcategories of food
establishments and their alternative inspection
frequencies shall be defined by regulation, subject to
paragraphs (2) and (3).
(2) In defining subcategories
of food establishments and their alternative inspection
frequencies under paragraphs (1) and (2), the
Administrator shall consider--
(A) the nature of the food
products being processed, stored, or transported;
(B) the manner in which food
products are processed, stored, or transported;
(C) the inherent likelihood
that the products will contribute to the risk of
food-borne illness;
(D) the best available
evidence concerning reported illnesses associated with
the foods processed, stored, held, or transported in the
proposed subcategory of establishments; and
(E) the overall record of
compliance with food safety law among establishments in
the proposed subcategory, including compliance with
applicable performance standards and the frequency of
recalls.
(3) The Administrator may
adopt alternative inspection frequencies for increased or
decreased inspection for a specific establishment and
shall annually publish a list of establishments subject to
alternative inspections.
(4) In adopting alternative
inspection frequencies for a specific establishment, the
Administrator shall consider--
(A) the criteria in
paragraph (2), together with any evidence submitted from
the individual food establishment supporting a request
for an alternative inspection frequency, including the
establishment’s record for implementing effective
preventive process control systems;
(B) whether products from
the specific establishment have been associated with a
case or an outbreak of food-borne illness; and
(C) the establishment’s
record of compliance with food safety law, including
compliance with applicable performance standards and the
frequency of recalls.
(e) Effective Date- The
inspection mandates shall go into effect 2 years after the
date of the enactment of this Act.
(f) Maintenance and Inspection
of Records-
(1) IN GENERAL-
(A) RECORDS- A food
establishment shall--
(i) maintain such records
as the Administrator shall require by regulation,
including all records relating to the processing,
distributing, receipt, or importation of any food; and
(ii) permit the
Administrator, in addition to any authority
transferred to the Administrator pursuant to section
102, upon presentation of appropriate credentials and
at reasonable times and in a reasonable manner, to
have access to and copy all records maintained by or
on behalf of such food establishment representative in
any format (including paper or electronic) and at any
location, that are necessary to assist the
Administrator--
(I) to determine
whether the food is contaminated or not in
compliance with the food safety law; or
(II) to track the food
in commerce.
(B) REQUIRED DISCLOSURE- A
food establishment shall have an affirmative obligation
to disclose to the Administrator the results of testing
or sampling of food, equipment, or material in contact
with food, that is positive for any contaminant.
(2) MAINTENANCE OF RECORDS-
The records in paragraph (1) shall be maintained for a
reasonable period of time, as determined by the
Administrator.
(3) REQUIREMENTS- The records
in paragraph (1) shall include records describing--
(A) the origin, receipt,
delivery, sale, movement, holding, and disposition of
food or ingredients;
(B) the identity and
quantity of ingredients used in the food;
(C) the processing of the
food;
(D) the results of
laboratory, sanitation, or other tests performed on the
food or in the food establishment;
(E) consumer complaints
concerning the food or packaging of the food;
(F) the production codes,
open date codes, and locations of food production; and
(G) other matters reasonably
related to whether food is adulterated or misbranded, or
otherwise fails to meet the requirements of this Act.
(g) Protection of Sensitive
Information-
(1) IN GENERAL- The
Administrator shall develop and maintain procedures to
prevent the unauthorized disclosure of any trade secret or
commercially valuable confidential information obtained by
the Administrator.
(2) LIMITATION- The
requirements under this subsection and subsection (f) do
not--
(A) limit the authority of
the Administrator to inspect or copy records or to
require the establishment or maintenance of records
under this Act;
(C) extend to any food
recipe, financial data, pricing data, or personnel data;
(D) limit the public
disclosure of distribution records or other records
related to food subject to a voluntary or mandatory
recall under section 403; or
(E) limit the authority of
the Administrator to promulgate regulations to permit
the sharing of data with other governmental authorities.
(h) Bribery of or Gifts to
Inspector or Other Officers and Acceptance of Gifts- Any
person or agent or employee thereof that gives, pays, or
offers, directly or indirectly, to the Administrator or any
employee or other designee thereof authorized to perform any
duty under the food safety law any money or other thing of
value, with intent to influence the discharge of any duty
under such law, shall be imprisoned for not more than 5
years, fined in accordance with title 18, United States
Code, or both. Any Administrator, employee, or other
designee that solicits or accepts any money or other thing
of value from any person, with intent to influence the
discharge of any duty under the food safety law, shall be
summarily discharged from office and imprisoned for not more
than 5 years, fined in accordance with title 18, United
States Code, or both.
SEC. 206. FOOD PRODUCTION FACILITIES.
(a) Authorities- In carrying out
the duties of the Administrator and the purposes of this
Act, the Administrator shall have the authority, with
respect to food production facilities, to--
(1) visit and inspect food
production facilities in the United States and in foreign
countries to determine if they are operating in compliance
with the requirements of the food safety law;
(2) review food safety records
as required to be kept by the Administrator under section
210 and for other food safety purposes;
(3) set good practice
standards to protect the public and animal health and
promote food safety;
(4) conduct monitoring and
surveillance of animals, plants, products, or the
environment, as appropriate; and
(5) collect and maintain
information relevant to public health and farm practices.
(b) Inspection of Records- A
food production facility shall permit the Administrator upon
presentation of appropriate credentials and at reasonable
times and in a reasonable manner, to have access to and
ability to copy all records maintained by or on behalf of
such food production establishment in any format (including
paper or electronic) and at any location, that are necessary
to assist the Administrator--
(1) to determine whether the
food is contaminated, adulterated, or otherwise not in
compliance with the food safety law; or
(2) to track the food in
commerce.
(c) Regulations- Not later than
1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of
Agriculture and representatives of State departments of
agriculture, shall promulgate regulations to establish
science-based minimum standards for the safe production of
food by food production facilities. Such regulations shall--
(1) consider all relevant
hazards, including those occurring naturally, and those
that may be unintentionally or intentionally introduced;
(2) require each food
production facility to have a written food safety plan
that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls
implemented to address those hazards;
(3) include, with respect to
growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations,
minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients,
hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal
encroachment, and water;
(4) include, with respect to
animals raised for food, minimum standards related to the
animal’s health, feed, and environment which bear on the
safety of food for human consumption;
(5) provide a reasonable
period of time for compliance, taking into account the
needs of small businesses for additional time to comply;
(6) provide for coordination
of education and enforcement activities by State and local
officials, as designated by the Governors of the
respective States; and
(7) include a description of
the variance process under subsection (d) and the types of
permissible variances which the Administrator may grant
under such process.
(d) Variances- States and
foreign countries that export produce intended for
consumption in the United States may request from the
Administrator variances from the requirements of the
regulations under subsection (c). A request shall--
(2) describe the reasons the
variance is necessary;
(3) describe the procedures,
processes, and practices that will be followed under the
variance to ensure produce is not adulterated; and
(4) contain any other
information required by the Administrator.
(e) Approval or Disapproval of
Variances- If the Administrator determines after review of a
request under subsection (d) that the requested variance
provides equivalent protections to those promulgated under
subsection (c), the Administrator may approve the request.
The Administrator shall deny a request if it is--
(1) not sufficiently detailed
to permit a determination;
(2) fails to cite sufficient
grounds for allowing a variance; or
(3) does not provide
reasonable assurances that the produce will not be
adulterated.
(f) Enforcement- The
Administrator may coordinate with the agency or department
designated by the Governor of each State to perform
activities to ensure compliance with this section.
(g) Imported Produce- Not later
than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the
Administrator shall promulgate regulations to ensure that
raw agricultural commodities and minimally processed produce
imported into the United States can meet standards for food
safety, inspection, labeling, and consumer protection that
are at least equal to standards applicable to such
commodities and produce produced in the United States.
SEC. 207. FEDERAL AND STATE COOPERATION.
(a) In General-
(1) AUTHORITY- The
Administrator shall strengthen and expand food-borne
illness surveillance systems to--
(A) inform and evaluate
efforts to prevent food-borne illness; and
(B) enhance the
identification and investigation of, and response to,
food-borne illness outbreaks.
(2) FOOD-BORNE ILLNESS
OUTBREAK- For purposes of this section, the term
‘foodborne illness outbreak’ means the occurrence of 2 or
more cases of a similar illness resulting from the
ingestion of a common food.
(b) Food-Borne Illness
Surveillance Systems- The Administrator, in collaboration
with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shall
enhance food-borne illness surveillance systems to improve
the collection, analysis, reporting, and usefulness of data
on food-borne illnesses by--
(1) coordinating food-borne
illness surveillance systems, including complaint systems,
in order to--
(A) produce better
information on illnesses associated with foods,
including sources and risk factors for infections by
emerging pathogens; and
(B) facilitate sharing of
data acquisition and findings on a more timely basis
among governmental agencies, including the Food Safety
Administration, the Food Safety and Inspection Service,
and State and local agencies, and with the public;
(2) augmenting such systems to
improve attribution of a food-borne illness outbreak to a
specific food;
(3) developing improved
epidemiological tools for obtaining quality exposure data,
microbiological methods for classifying cases and
detecting clusters, and improved tracebacks to rapidly and
specifically identify contaminated food products;
(4) expanding capacity of such
systems for implementation of fingerprinting strategies
for food-borne infectious agents, including parasites and
hepatitis A, in order to increase pathogen discovery
efforts to identify new or rarely documented causes of
food-borne illness;
(5) allowing timely public
access to de-identified, aggregate surveillance data;
(6) at least annually,
publishing current reports on findings from such systems;
(7) exploring establishment of
registries for long-term case follow-up to better
characterize late complications of food-borne illness;
(8) increasing participation
in national networks of public health and food regulatory
agencies and laboratories to--
(A) allow public health
officials at the Federal, State, and local levels to
share and accept laboratory analytic findings; and
(B) identify food-borne
illness outbreaks and attribute such outbreaks to
specific foods through submission of standardized
molecular subtypes (also known as ‘fingerprints’) of
food-borne illness pathogens to a centralized database;
and
(9) establishing a flexible
mechanism for rapidly supporting scientific research by
academic centers of excellence, which may include staff
representing academic clinical researchers, food
microbiologists, animal and plant disease specialists,
ecologists, and other allied disciplines.
(c) Improving State Surveillance
Capacity- The Administrator, in collaboration with the
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
shall improve capacity for surveillance in the States by--
(1) supporting outbreak
investigations with needed specialty expertise, including
epidemiological, microbiological, and environmental
expertise, to assist identification of underlying common
sources and contributing factors;
(2) identifying,
disseminating, and supporting implementation of model
practices at the State and local level for--
(A) facilitating rapid
shipment of clinical isolates from clinical laboratories
to State public health laboratories to avoid delays in
testing;
(B) conducting rapid and
more standardized interviewing of cases associated with
major enteric pathogens, including prior to designation
of clusters as food-borne illness outbreaks;
(C) conducting and
evaluating rapid and standardized interviews of healthy
control persons;
(D) sharing information on a
timely basis--
(i) within public health
and food regulatory agencies;
(ii) among such agencies;
(iii) with the food
industry;
(iv) with healthcare
providers; and
(3) developing, regularly
updating, and disseminating training curricula on
food-borne illness surveillance investigations, including
standard sampling methods and laboratory procedures;
(4) integrating new molecular
diagnostic tools for parasites into web-based consultation
services for parasitic infections to accelerate the
identification of these food-borne infectious agents;
(5) supporting research to
develop and deploy new subtyping methods for salmonella,
E. coli, campylobacter, and other pathogens, to increase
the speed and accuracy of diagnoses;
(6) determining minimum core
competencies for public health laboratories, and
developing self-evaluation and proficiency-testing tools
for such laboratories;
(7) facilitating regional
public health laboratory partnerships to leverage
resources, including equipment and physical space, and
increase surge capacity;
(8) providing technical
assistance, which may include the detailing of officers
and employees of the Administrator, to State and local
public health and food regulatory agencies;
(9) partnering with the Food
Safety Administration to increase communication,
coordination, and integration of food-borne illness
surveillance and outbreak investigation activities; and
(10) developing and
periodically updating response and interview procedures so
that such procedures are standardized and tested.
(d) Program Activities- The
Administrator shall carry out activities to support core
food safety functions of State and local public health
laboratories, including--
(1) establishing fellowships,
stipends, and scholarships to address critical workforce
shortages;
(2) training and coordination
of State and local personnel;
(3) establishing partnerships
between private and public laboratories to facilitate
sharing of positive enteric specimens and improve surge
capacity;
(4) strengthening capacity to
participate in existing or new food-borne illness
surveillance systems; and
(5) purchasing and maintaining
data systems hardware and software and laboratory
equipment.
(e) Plan To Improve Food Safety
Capacity at the State and Local Level-
(1) GOALS- The Administrator
shall leverage and enhance the food safety capacity and
roles of State and local agencies and integrate State and
local agencies as fully as possible into national food
safety efforts, in order to achieve the following goals:
(A) Improve food-borne
illness outbreak response and containment.
(B) Improve the contribution
of food-borne illness surveillance and investigation to
the prevention of food-borne illness.
(C) Strengthen oversight of
food safety at the retail level.
(D) Strengthen the capacity
of State and local agencies to carry out inspections and
enforce safety standards in food processing
establishments, as part of a national strategy and plan
to provide an adequate level of inspection and achieve
compliance with safety standards in such establishments.
(E) Make more effective use
of the Nation’s combined food safety resources to reduce
the burden of food-borne illness.
(2) SURVEY- In preparation for
development of the plan required by paragraph (3), the
Administrator shall, not later than 1 year after the date
of enactment of this part, complete a survey of State and
local capacities, and needs for enhancement, with respect
to--
(A) staffing levels and
expertise available to perform food safety functions;
(B) laboratory capacity to
support surveillance, outbreak response, inspection, and
enforcement activities;
(C) information systems to
support data management and sharing of food safety
information among State and local agencies and with
counterparts at the Federal level;
(D) legal authorities of
State and local agencies to support the roles of such
agencies in a national food safety system; and
(E) organizational
arrangements for managing and coordinating food safety
activities.
(3) PLAN- Taking into account
the goals established in paragraph (1), results from the
survey required in paragraph (2), and consultations with
State and local agencies and other food safety
stakeholders, the Administrator shall, not later than 2
years after the date of enactment of this part, develop,
publish, and begin implementation of a plan that includes
the following elements:
(A) Criteria for assessing
the adequacy of State and local capacity to perform food
safety functions as part of a national food safety
system.
(B) Priorities for enhancing
the capacity of State and local agencies.
(C) Action plans for meeting
the highest priority capacity needs, including budget
requirements and financing plans that take into account
Federal, State, and local resources.
(D) Improved coordination
and information flow among Federal, State, and local
agencies to strengthen food-borne illness surveillance,
outbreak response, and investigation and to ensure that
agencies at all levels have the information on origins
and causes of food-borne illness that such agencies need
to plan preventive measures.
(E) Integration of the
inspection and compliance programs in food processing
establishments of the Food Safety Administration and
State and local agencies, including--
(i) joint planning and
priority setting to ensure that the collective effort
has the greatest possible impact on achieving
compliance with food safety standards and reducing
food-borne illness;
(ii) elimination of
barriers to the free flow of information among the
Food Safety Administration and State and local
agencies with respect to inspection and compliance
programs and integration of State and Federal
inspection and laboratory data systems;
(iii) steps to expand,
and ensure the vigor and consistency of, State
inspection of processing establishments under contract
to the Food Safety Administration; and
(iv) reliance by the Food
Safety Administration on State inspection and food
sample analyses in Federal enforcement activities.
(4) FOOD SAFETY CAPACITY
BUILDING GRANTS- The Administrator shall make grants to
State and local agencies to enhance State and local food
safety capacity and programs and support achievement of
the goals established in paragraph (1). In awarding such
grants, the Administrator shall take into account the
criteria and priorities established by the Administrator
under paragraph (3).
(5) REPORT TO CONGRESS- Not
later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this
part, and on an annual basis thereafter, the Administrator
shall submit to Congress a report that describes--
(A) progress made in
implementing this section, including any obstacles to
such implementation; and
(B) any legislative
recommendations or additional resources needed for full
implementation.
(f) Service Agreements-
(1) IN GENERAL- The
Administrator may, under agreements entered into with
Federal, State, or local agencies, use on a reimbursable
basis or otherwise the qualified personnel and services of
those agencies in carrying out this Act.
(2) TRAINING- Agreements with
a State under this subsection shall provide for training
of State employees.
(3) MAINTENANCE OF AGREEMENTS-
The Administrator shall maintain any agreement described
in paragraph (1) that is in effect on the day before the
date of the enactment of this Act until the Administrator
evaluates such agreement and determines whether to
maintain or substitute such agreement.
(4) COMMISSIONING- Where
necessary and appropriate to fulfill the provisions of
this Act or other food safety law, the Administrator
shall, as part of any service agreement, commission
qualified State and local regulatory officials and
inspectors to assist the Administrator in carrying out the
food safety law and accord such commissioned officials and
inspectors access to information in possession of the
Administrator as if they were Federal employees.
SEC. 208. IMPORTS.
(a) In General- All imported
food under this Act shall meet requirements for food safety,
inspection, labeling, and consumer protection that are at
least equal to those applicable to food grown, manufactured,
processed, packed, or held for consumption in the United
States.
(b) Certification System- Not
later than 2 years after the date of the enactment of this
Act, the Administrator shall establish a system under which
food products offered for importation into the United States
shall be certified by the accredited foreign government in
the country of export or by an accredited certifying agent
meeting all applicable standards under this section.
(1) Category 1, 2, and 3 food
establishments shall secure certification of products from
the accredited foreign government in the country where the
products are produced and must enter the United States
through ports designated by the Administrator.
(2) Category 4 and 5 food
establishments shall be certified either by--
(A) the accredited foreign
government in the country where the products are
produced; or
(B) a certifying agent that
has been accredited under subsection (c).
(3) Beginning not later than 5
years after the date of the enactment of this Act, food
from category 4 and 5 food establishments that is not
certified by an accredited entity described in subsection
(c) shall not enter the United States except through ports
of entry that are located in a metropolitan area with an
accredited food testing laboratory.
(c) Certification Standard-
(1) IN GENERAL- A foreign
government or third party agent requesting accreditation
to certify food for entry into the United States shall
demonstrate, in a manner determined appropriate by the
Administrator, that food produced under the supervision of
the foreign government or third party agent, respectively,
can meet standards for food safety, inspection, labeling,
and consumer protection that are at least equal to
standards applicable to food produced in the United
States.
(2) REQUEST BY FOREIGN
GOVERNMENT- Prior to accrediting a foreign government, the
Administrator shall--
(A) review and audit the
food safety program of the requesting foreign government
(including all statutes, regulations, and inspection
authority); and
(B) determine that the
exporting country--
(i) administers a food
control program that requires food exporters to
implement hazard control measures for physical,
chemical, and biological contaminants;
(ii) ensures sanitary
operations of facilities;
(iii) utilizes testing
and verification programs; and
(iv) administers an
effective enforcement program.
(3) REQUEST BY A CERTIFYING
AGENT- Prior to accrediting a certifying agent, the
Administrator shall--
(A) review the training and
qualifications of auditors and other employees used by
the agent;
(B) ensure that any such
auditors have completed such training as may be required
by the Administrator for the conduct of food safety
inspections; and
(C) conduct reviews of
internal systems and such other investigation as the
Administrator deems necessary to determine that the
certifying agent is capable of auditing food
establishments--
(i) to assess the
adequacy of systems and standards in use; and
(ii) to ensure that food
approved by the agent for import to the United States
meets the requirements of this Act.
(4) CERTIFICATION TO ACCOMPANY
EACH SHIPMENT- As a condition of accrediting any foreign
government or certifying agent, such government or agent
shall agree to issue a written and electronic
certification to accompany each shipment intended for
import to the United States from any food establishment
which the government or agent certifies, subject to
requirements set forth by the Administrator.
(d) Audits; Inspections-
Following any accreditation under subsection (c), the
Administrator may at any time--
(1) conduct an on-site audit
of any food establishment registered under section 202,
with or without the certifying agent; or
(2) require a certifying agent
to submit an onsite audit report and any other reports or
documents which the agent requires as part of the audit
process, including documentation that the food
establishment is in compliance with registration
requirements and prior notice requirements for food
imported to the United States.
(e) Limitation- A foreign
government or other certifying agent accredited by the
Administrator to certify food for import to the United
States under this section may certify only the food products
or food categories for importation to the United States that
are specified in the grant of accreditation.
(f) Withdrawal of Accreditation-
The Administrator may withdraw accreditation from a foreign
government or certifying agent--
(1) if food approved by the
foreign government or certifying agent is linked to an
outbreak of human illness;
(2) following an investigation
and finding by the Administrator that the programs of the
foreign government, or a foreign food establishment
certified by the certifying agent, are no longer equal to
those applied to food grown, manufactured, processed,
packed, or held in the United States; or
(3) following a refusal to
allow United States officials to conduct such audits and
investigations as may be necessary to ensure continued
compliance with the requirements of this section.
(g) Renewal of Accreditation-
The Administrator shall audit foreign governments and
certifying agents whenever needed, but no less than once
every 3 years, to ensure the continued compliance with the
requirements set forth in this section. Renewal of
accreditation shall occur following each satisfactory audit.
(h) Required Routine Inspection-
The Administrator shall routinely inspect food before or at
entry into the United States to ensure ongoing compliance
with food safety law and where appropriate, as part of the
audit of any certifying entity.
(i) Enforcement- The
Administrator may--
(1) deny importation of food
from any foreign country if the government of such country
does not permit United States officials to enter the
foreign country to conduct such audits and inspections as
may be necessary to fulfill requirements under this
section;
(2) deny importation of food
from any foreign country or foreign food establishment
that does not consent to a timely investigation by the
Administration when food from that foreign country or
foreign food establishment is linked to a food-borne
illness outbreak or is otherwise found to be adulterated
or misbranded;
(3) promulgate regulations to
carry out the purposes of this section, including setting
terms and conditions for the destruction of products that
fail to meet the requirements of this Act; and
(4) establish such fees as are
necessary to carry out the implementation of the
accreditation and inspection programs required under this
section.
(j) Detention and Seizure- Any
food imported for consumption in the United States may be
detained, seized, or condemned pursuant to section 402 or
recalled pursuant to section 403.
(k) Certifying Agents- Entities
eligible for accreditation as a certifying agent under
subsection (c) may include--
(1) a State or regional food
authority; or
(2) a foreign or domestic
cooperative that aggregates the products of growers or
processors for importation.
(l) Avoiding Conflicts of
Interest With Certifying Agents-
(1) IN GENERAL- To be eligible
for accreditation under subsection (c), a certifying agent
shall--
(A) not be owned, managed,
or controlled by any person that owns or operates an
establishment whose products are to be certified by such
agent;
(B) have procedures to
ensure against the use, in carrying out audits of food
establishments under this section, of any officer or
employee of such agent that has a financial conflict of
interest regarding an establishment whose products are
to be certified by such agent; and
(C) annually make available
to the Secretary, disclosures of the extent to which
such agent, and the officers and employees of such
agent, have maintained compliance with subparagraphs (A)
and (B) relating to financial conflicts of interest.
(2) REGULATIONS- The Secretary
shall promulgate regulations not later than 18 months
after the date of the enactment of this Act to ensure that
there are protections against conflicts of interest
between a certifying agent and the establishments whose
products are to be certified by such agent. Such
regulations shall include--
(A) requiring that domestic
audits performed under this section be unannounced;
(B) a structure, including
timing and public disclosure, for fees paid by food
establishments to certifying agents to decrease the
potential for conflicts of interest; and
(C) appropriate limits on
financial affiliations between a certifying agent and
any person that owns or operates an establishment whose
products are to be certified by such agent.
SEC. 209. RESOURCE PLAN.
(a) In General- The
Administrator shall prepare and update annually a resource
plan describing the resources required, in the best
professional judgment of the Administrator, to develop and
fully implement the national food safety program established
under this Act.
(b) Contents of Plan- The
resource plan shall--
(1) describe quantitatively
the personnel, financial, and other resources required to
carry out the inspection of food establishments under
section 205 and other requirements of this Act;
(2) allocate inspection
resources in a manner reflecting the distribution of risk
and opportunities to reduce risk across the food supply to
the extent feasible based on the best available
information, and subject to section 205; and
(3) describe the personnel,
facilities, equipment, and other resources needed to carry
out inspection and other oversight activities, at a total
resource level equal to at least 50 percent of the
resources required to carry out inspections in food
establishments under section 205 and food production
facilities under section 206--
(A) in foreign
establishments and production facilities; and
(B) at the point of
importation.
(c) Grants- The resource plan
shall include recommendations for funding to provide grants
to States and local governments to carry out food safety
activities and inspections of food establishments and food
production facilities and include resources to audit such
programs.
(d) Submission of Plan- The
Administrator shall submit annually to the Committee on
Appropriations of the Senate, the Committee on
Appropriations of the House of Representatives, and other
relevant committees of Congress, the resource plan required
under this section.
SEC. 210. TRACEBACK REQUIREMENTS.
(a) In General- The
Administrator, in order to protect the public health, shall
establish a national traceability system that enables the
Administrator to retrieve the history, use, and location of
an article of food through all stages of its production,
processing, and distribution.
(b) Applicability- Traceability
requirements under this section shall apply to food from
food production facilities, food establishments, and foreign
food establishments.
(c) Requirements-
(1) STANDARDS- The
Administrator shall establish standards for the type of
information, format, and timeframe for food production
facilities and food establishments to submit records to
aid the Administrator in effectively retrieving the
history, use, and location of an item of food.
(2) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION-
Nothing in this section shall be construed as requiring
the Administrator to prescribe a specific technology for
the maintenance of records or labeling of food to carry
out the requirements of this section.
(3) AVAILABILITY OF RECORDS
FOR INSPECTION- Any records that are required by the
Administrator under this section shall be available for
inspection by the Administrator upon oral or written
request.
(4) DEMONSTRATION OF ABILITY-
The Administrator, during any inspection, may require a
food establishment to demonstrate its ability to trace an
item of food and submit the information in the format and
timeframe required under paragraph (1).
(d) Relationship to Other
Requirements-
(1) CONSISTENCY WITH EXISTING
STATUTES AND REGULATIONS- To the extent possible, the
Administrator should establish the national traceability
system under this section to be consistent with existing
statutes and regulations that require recordkeeping or
labeling for identifying the origin or history of food or
food animals.
(2) EXISTING LAWS- For
purposes of this subsection, the Administrator should
review the following:
(A) Country of origin
labeling requirements of subtitle D of the Agricultural
Marketing Act of 1946 (7
U.S.C. 1638 et seq.).
(C) Country of origin
labeling requirements of section 304 of the Tariff Act
of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1340).
(D) The National Animal
Identification System as authorized by the Animal Health
Protection Act of 2002 (7
U.S.C. 8301 et seq.).
(3) CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS-
Nothing contained in this section prevents or interferes
with implementation of the country of origin labeling
requirements of subtitle D of the Agricultural Marketing
Act of 1946 (7
U.S.C. 1638 et seq.).
SEC. 211. ACCREDITED LABORATORIES.
(a) Establishment of Program-
The Administrator shall establish a program for accrediting
laboratories to perform sampling and testing for purposes of
this Act. Such program shall include--
(1) standards for appropriate
sampling and analytical procedures;
(2) training and experience
qualification levels for individuals who conduct sampling
and analysis;
(3) annual onsite visits to
audit the performance of an accredited laboratory; and
(4) such additional
requirements as the Administrator determines to be
appropriate.
(b) Requirements- To be
accredited under this section, a laboratory shall--
(1) prepare and submit an
application for accreditation to the Administrator;
(2) meet required tests and
standards established by the Administrator; and
(3) comply with such terms and
conditions as are determined necessary by the
Administrator.
(c) Accrediting Bodies- The
Administrator may approve State agencies or private,
nonprofit entities as accrediting bodies to act on behalf of
the Administrator in accrediting laboratories under this
section. The Administrator shall--
(1) in making such approvals--
(A) oversee and review the
performance of any accrediting body acting on behalf of
the Administrator to ensure that such accrediting body
is in compliance with the requirements of this section;
and
(B) have the right to obtain
from an accrediting body acting on behalf of the
Administrator and from any laboratory that may be
certified by such a body all records and materials that
may be necessary for the oversight and review required
by subparagraph (A);
(2) reevaluate accreditation
bodies approved under paragraph (1) whenever--
(A) the Administrator
determines a laboratory accredited by the accrediting
body is no longer in compliance with this section;
(B) the Administrator
determines the accrediting body is no longer in
compliance with the requirements of this section; or
(C) no less than once every
5 years; and
(3) promptly revoke the
approval of any accreditation body found not to be in
compliance with the requirements of this section.
(d) Revocation of Accreditation-
The Administrator shall revoke the accreditation of any
laboratory that fails to meet the requirements this section.
TITLE III--RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
SEC. 301. PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT SYSTEM.
(a) In General- The
Administrator, acting in coordination with the Director of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and with food
safety and research programs of the Department of
Agriculture, shall--
(1) identify on an ongoing
basis the priorities for collection of epidemiological
data and for other food safety research and data
collection that are most important to implementing the
food safety law and reducing the public health burden of
food-borne illness;
(2) have full access for
purposes of implementing the food safety law to the
applicable data and data systems of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, including data made
available to the Centers by a State;
(3) provide appropriate
support and input on the design and implementation by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the States
of an active surveillance system that provides information
on the incidence and causes of food-borne illness which is
timely, detailed, and representative of the population of
the United States;
(4) based on data and
information obtained from the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, the States, and other sources, assess the
incidence, distribution, public health impact, and causes
of human illness in the United States associated with the
consumption of food, and conduct research and analysis to
devise effective and feasible interventions to reduce
food-borne illness;
(5) maintain a
state-of-the-art DNA matching system and epidemiological
system dedicated to food-borne illness identification,
outbreaks, and containment; and
(6) utilize surveillance data
created by means of monitoring and statistical studies
conducted as part of its own inspection.
(b) Public Health Sampling-
(1) IN GENERAL- Not later than
1 year after the enactment of this Act, the Administrator
shall establish guidelines for a sampling system under
which the Administrator shall take and analyze samples of
food--
(A) to assist the
Administrator in carrying out this Act; and
(B) to assess the nature,
frequency of occurrence, and quantities of contaminants
in food.
(2) REQUIREMENTS- The sampling
system described in paragraph (1) shall provide--
(A) statistically valid
monitoring, including market-based studies, on the
nature, frequency of occurrence, and quantities of
contaminants in food available to consumers; and
(B) at the request of the
Administrator, such other information, including
analysis of monitoring and verification samples, as the
Administrator determines may be useful in assessing the
occurrence of contaminants in food.
(c) Assessment of Health
Hazards-
(1) IN GENERAL- Through the
surveillance system and analyses referred to in subsection
(a) and the sampling system described in subsection (b),
the Administrator shall--
(A) rank food categories
based on the hazard to human health presented by the
food category and specific chemical and microbiological
hazards associated with foods in those categories;
(B) identify appropriate
industry and regulatory approaches to minimize hazards
in the food supply; and
(C) assess the conditions
affecting the likelihood that emerging pathogens and
diseases, including zoonosis, will affect the safety of
the food supply and possible strategies for minimizing
the potential risk to public health associated with
emerging pathogens and diseases.
(2) COMPONENTS OF ANALYSIS-
The analysis under subsection (b)(1) may include--
(A) a comparison of the
safety of commercial processing with the health hazards
associated with food that is harvested for recreational
or subsistence purposes and prepared noncommercially;
(B) a comparison of the
safety of food that is domestically processed with the
health hazards associated with food that is processed
outside the United States;
(C) a description of
contamination originating from handling practices that
occur prior to or after the sale of food to consumers;
and
(D) use of comparative risk
assessments.
SEC. 302. PUBLIC EDUCATION AND ADVISORY SYSTEM.
(a) Public Education-
(1) IN GENERAL- The
Administrator, in cooperation with private and public
organizations, including the cooperative extension
services and building on the efforts of appropriate State
and local entities, shall establish a national public
education program on food safety.
(2) REQUIREMENTS- The program
shall provide--
(A) information to the
public regarding Federal standards and best practices,
and promotion of public awareness and understanding of
those standards and practices;
(B) information for health
professionals--
(i) to improve diagnosis
and treatment of food-related illness; and
(ii) to advise
individuals at special risk for food-related
illnesses; and
(C) such other information
or advice, including on safe food handling practices, to
consumers and other persons as the Administrator
determines will promote the purposes of this Act.
(b) Health Advisories- The
Administrator, in consultation with other Federal
departments and agencies as the Administrator determines
necessary, shall work with the States and other appropriate
entities--
(1) to develop and distribute
regional and national advisories concerning food safety;
(2) to develop standardized
formats for written and broadcast advisories;
(3) to incorporate State and
local advisories into the national public education
program established under subsection (a); and
(4) to present prompt,
specific information regarding food found to pose a threat
to the public health, including by identifying the
retailers and food establishments where such food has been
sold.
SEC. 303. RESEARCH.
(a) In General- The
Administrator shall conduct research to carry out this Act,
including studies to--
(1) improve sanitation and
food safety practices in the processing of food;
(2) develop improved
techniques to monitor and inspect food;
(3) develop efficient, rapid,
and sensitive methods to detect contaminants in food;
(4) determine the sources of
contamination of contaminated food;
(5) develop food consumption
data;
(6) identify ways that animal
production techniques could improve the safety of the food
supply;
(7) draw upon research and
educational programs that exist at the State and local
level;
(8) utilize the DNA matching
system and other processes to identify and control
pathogens;
(9) address common and
emerging zoonotic diseases;
(10) develop methods to reduce
or destroy harmful pathogens before, during, and after
processing;
(11) analyze the incidence of
antibiotic resistence as it pertains to the food supply
and develop new methods to reduce the transfer of
antibiotic resistance to humans; and
(12) conduct other research
that supports the purposes of this Act.
(b) Contract Authority- The
Administrator may enter into contracts and agreements with
any State, university, Federal Government agency, or person
to carry out this section.
SEC. 304. WORKING GROUP ON IMPROVING FOODBORNE ILLNESS
SURVEILLANCE.
Not later than 180 days after
the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall
establish a diverse working group of experts and
stakeholders from Federal, State, and local food safety and
health agencies, the food industry, consumer organizations,
and academia. Such working group shall provide the
Administrator, through at least annual meetings of the
working group and an annual public report, advice and
recommendations on an ongoing and regular basis regarding
the improvement of food-borne illness surveillance,
including advice and recommendations on--
(1) the priority needs of
regulatory agencies, the food industry, and consumers for
information and analysis on food-borne illness and its
causes that can be used to prevent food-borne illness;
(2) opportunities to improve
the effectiveness of initiatives at the Federal, State,
and local levels, including coordination and integration
of activities among Federal agencies, and between the
Federal, State, and local levels of government;
(3) improvement in the
timeliness and depth of access by regulatory and health
agencies, the food industry, academic researchers, and
consumers to food-borne illness surveillance data
collected by government agencies at all levels, including
data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention;
(4) key barriers to
improvement in food-borne illness surveillance and its
utility for preventing food-borne illness at Federal,
State, and local levels; and
(5) specific actions to reduce
barriers to such improvement, implement the working
group’s recommendations, with measurable objectives and
timelines, and identification of resource and staffing
needs.
SEC. 305. CAREER-SPANNING TRAINING FOR FOOD INSPECTORS.
(a) In General- The
Administrator shall make a grant to an entity described in
subsection (c) to provide training to Federal, State, and
local food inspectors.
(b) Use of Funds- The
Administrator may make a grant under this section to an
applicant only if the applicant agrees to use the grant to
provide regular, standardized, graduated, career-spanning
training, based on a curriculum developed by the Association
of Food and Drug Officials, to Federal, State, and local
food inspectors.
(c) Eligible Entity- An entity
described in this subsection is an entity that--
(1) is described in section
501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26
U.S.C. 501(c)(3));
(2) has the capability to
train not less than 1,000 food inspectors per year; and
(3) offers both on-site and
off-site training for food inspectors.
SEC. 306. FOOD-BORNE ILLNESS HEALTH REGISTRY.
(a) Purpose- The purpose of the
registry under subsection (b) is to stimulate research on
the trends, sources, health outcomes, and preventive
strategies related to food-borne disease.
(b) Registry- For the purpose
described in subsection (a), the Secretary of Health and
Human Services, acting through the Director of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, shall develop and
maintain a registry, to be known as the Food-Borne Illness
Health Registry, consisting of data on the trends, sources,
health outcomes, and preventive strategies related to
food-borne disease.
SEC. 307. STUDY ON FEDERAL RESOURCES.
Not later than one year after
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller
General of the United States shall complete a study on the
Federal resources being dedicated to food-borne illness and
food safety research and submit a report on the results of
such study to the Congress.
SEC. 401. PROHIBITED ACTS.
It is prohibited--
(1) to manufacture, introduce,
deliver for introduction, or receive in interstate
commerce any food that is adulterated, misbranded, or
otherwise unsafe;
(2) to adulterate or misbrand
any food in interstate commerce;
(3) for a food establishment
or foreign food establishment to fail to register under
section 202, or to operate without a valid registration;
(4) to refuse to permit access
to a food establishment or food production facility for
the inspection and copying of a record as required under
sections 205(f) and 206(a);
(5) to fail to establish or
maintain any record or to make any report as required
under sections 205(f) and 206(b);
(6) to refuse to permit entry
to or inspection of a food establishment as required under
section 205;
(7) to fail to provide to the
Administrator the results of testing or sampling of food,
equipment, or material in contact with food, that is
positive for any contaminant under section 205(f)(1)(B);
(8) to fail to comply with a
provision, regulation, or order of the Administrator under
section 202, 203, 204, 206, or 208;
(9) to slaughter an animal
that is capable for use in whole or in part as human food
at a food establishment processing any food for commerce,
except in compliance with the food safety law;
(10) to transfer food in
violation of an administrative detention order under
section 402 or to remove or alter a required mark or label
identifying the food as detained;
(11) to fail to comply with a
recall or other order under section 403; or
(12) to otherwise violate the
food safety law.
SEC. 402. FOOD DETENTION, SEIZURE, AND CONDEMNATION.
(a) Administrative Detention of
Food-
(1) EXPANDED AUTHORITY- The
Administrator shall have authority under section 304 of
the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21
U.S.C. 334) to administratively detain and seize any
food regulated under this Act that the Administrator has
reason to believe is unsafe, is adulterated or misbranded,
or otherwise fails to meet the requirements of the food
safety law.
(2) DETENTION AUTHORITY- If,
during an inspection conducted in accordance with section
205 or 208, an officer, employee, or agent of the
Administration making the inspection has reason to believe
that a domestic food, imported food, or food offered for
import is unsafe, is adulterated or misbranded, or
otherwise fails to meet the requirements of this the food
safety law, the officer, employee, or agent may order the
food detained.
(3) PERIOD OF DETENTION-
(A) IN GENERAL- A food may
be detained under paragraph (1) or (2) for a reasonable
period, not to exceed 20 days, unless a longer period,
not to exceed 30 days, is necessary for the
Administrator to institute a seizure action.
(B) PERISHABLE FOOD- The
Administrator shall provide by regulation for procedures
to institute a seizure action on an expedited basis with
respect to perishable food.
(4) SECURITY OF DETAINED FOOD-
(A) IN GENERAL- A detention
order under this subsection--
(i) may require that the
food be labeled or marked as detained; and
(ii) shall require that
the food be removed to a secure facility, if
appropriate.
(B) FOOD SUBJECT TO AN
ORDER- A food subject to a detention order under this
subsection shall not be transferred by any person from
the place at which the food is removed, until released
by the Administrator or until the expiration of the
detention period applicable under the order, whichever
occurs first.
(C) DELIVERY OF FOOD- This
subsection does not authorize the delivery of a food in
accordance with execution of a bond while the article is
subject to the order.
(b) Appeal of Detention Order-
(1) IN GENERAL- A person who
would be entitled to be a claimant for a food subject to a
detention order under subsection (a) if the food were
seized under section 304 of the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act (21
U.S.C. 334), may appeal the order to the
Administrator.
(2) ACTION BY THE
ADMINISTRATOR- Not later than 5 days after an appeal is
filed under paragraph (1), the Administrator, after
providing an opportunity for an informal hearing, shall
confirm, modify, or terminate the order involved.
(3) FINAL AGENCY ACTION-
Confirmation, modification, or termination by the
Administrator under paragraph (2) shall be considered a
final agency action for purposes of
section 702 of title 5, United States Code.
(4) TERMINATION- A detention
order under subsection (a) shall be considered to be
terminated if, after 5 days, the Administrator has
failed--
(A) to provide an
opportunity for an informal hearing; or
(B) to confirm, modify, or
terminate the order.
(5) EFFECT OF INSTITUTING
COURT ACTION- If the Administrator initiates an action
under section 302 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic
Act (21
U.S.C. 332) or section 304(a) of that Act (21
U.S.C. 334(a)) for a food subject to a detention order
under subsection (a), the process for the appeal of the
detention order with respect to such food shall terminate.
(c) Condemnation of Food-
(1) IN GENERAL- After
confirming a detention order, the Administrator may order
the food condemned.
(2) DESTRUCTION OF FOOD- Any
food condemned shall be destroyed under the supervision of
the Administrator.
(3) RELEASE OF FOOD- If the
Administrator determines that, through reprocessing,
relabeling, or other action, a detained food can be
brought into compliance with this Act, the food may be
released following a determination by the Administrator
that the relabeling or other action as specified by the
Administrator has been performed.
(d) Temporary Holds at Ports of
Entry-
(1) IN GENERAL- If an officer
or qualified employee of the Administration has reason to
believe that a food is unsafe, is adulterated or
misbranded, or otherwise fails to meet the requirements of
this Act, and the officer or qualified employee is unable
to inspect, examine, or investigate the food when the food
is offered for import at a port of entry into the United
States, the officer or qualified employee shall request
the Secretary of Homeland Security to hold the food at the
port of entry for a reasonable period of time, not to
exceed 24 hours, to enable the Administrator to inspect or
investigate the food as appropriate.
(2) REMOVAL TO SECURE
FACILITY- The Administrator shall work in coordination
with the Secretary of Homeland Security to remove a food
held in accordance with paragraph (1) to a secure facility
as appropriate.
(3) PROHIBITION ON TRANSFER-
During the period in which food is held, the food shall
not be transferred by any person from the port of entry
into the United States, or from the secure facility to
which the food has been removed.
(4) DELIVERY IN ACCORDANCE
WITH A BOND- The delivery of the food in accordance with
the execution of a bond while the food is held is not
authorized.
(5) PROHIBITION ON REEXPORT- A
food found unfit for human or animal consumption shall be
prohibited from reexport without further processing to
remove the contamination and reinspection by the
Administration.
SEC. 403. NOTIFICATION AND RECALL.
(a) Notice to Administrator of
Violation-
(1) IN GENERAL- A person that
has reason to believe that any food introduced into or in
interstate commerce, or held for sale (whether or not the
first sale) after shipment in interstate commerce, may be
in violation of the food safety law shall immediately
notify the Administrator of the identity and location of
the food.
(2) MANNER OF NOTIFICATION-
Notification under paragraph (1) shall be made in such
manner and by such means as the Administrator may require
by regulation.
(b) Recall and Consumer
Notification-
(1) VOLUNTARY ACTIONS- If the
Administrator determines that food is in violation of the
food safety law when introduced into or while in
interstate commerce or while held for sale (whether or not
the first sale) after shipment in interstate commerce and
that there is a reasonable probability that the food, if
consumed, would present a threat to public health, as
determined by the Administrator, the Administrator shall
give the appropriate persons (including the manufacturers,
importers, distributors, or retailers of the food) an
opportunity to--
(A) cease distribution of
the food;
(B) notify all persons--
(i) processing,
distributing, or otherwise handling the food to
immediately cease such activities with respect to the
food; or
(ii) to which the food
has been distributed, transported, or sold, to
immediately cease distribution of the food;
(D) in conjunction with the
Administrator, provide notice of the finding of the
Administrator--
(i) to consumers to whom
the food was, or may have been, distributed; and
(ii) to State and local
public health officials; or
(E) take any combination of
the measures described in this paragraph, as determined
by the Administrator to be appropriate in the
circumstances.
(2) MANDATORY ACTIONS- If a
person referred to in paragraph (1) refuses to or does not
adequately carry out the actions described in that
paragraph within the time period and in the manner
prescribed by the Administrator, the Administrator shall--
(A) have authority to
control and possess the food, including ordering the
shipment of the food from the food establishment to the
Administrator--
(i) at the expense of the
food establishment; or
(ii) in an emergency (as
determined by the Administrator), at the expense of
the Administration; and
(B) by order, require, as
the Administrator determines to be necessary, the person
to immediately--
(i) cease distribution of
the food; and
(ii) notify all persons--
(I) processing,
distributing, or otherwise handling the food to
immediately cease such activities with respect to
the food; or
(II) if the food has
been distributed, transported, or sold, to
immediately cease distribution of the food.
(3) NOTIFICATION TO CONSUMERS
BY ADMINISTRATOR- The Administrator shall, as the
Administrator determines to be necessary--
(A) provide notice of the
finding of the Administrator under paragraph (1)--
(i) to consumers to whom
the food was, or may have been, distributed; and
(ii) to State and local
public health officials; and
(B) provide notice to the
public of the names and addresses of retail locations at
which recalled food products were available for sale.
(4) NONDISTRIBUTION BY
NOTIFIED PERSONS- A person that processes, distributes, or
otherwise handles the food, or to which the food has been
distributed, transported, or sold, and that is notified
under paragraph (1)(B) or (2)(B) shall immediately cease
distribution of the food.
(5) AVAILABILITY OF RECORDS TO
ADMINISTRATOR- Each person referred to in paragraph (1)
that processed, distributed, or otherwise handled food
shall make available to the Administrator information
necessary to carry out this subsection, as determined by
the Administrator, regarding--
(A) persons that processed,
distributed, or otherwise handled the food; and
(B) persons to which the
food has been transported, sold, distributed, or
otherwise handled.
(c) Informal Hearings on Orders-
(1) IN GENERAL- The
Administrator shall provide any person subject to an order
under subsection (b) with an opportunity for an informal
hearing, to be held as soon as practicable but not later
than 2 business days after the issuance of the order.
(2) SCOPE OF THE HEARING- In a
hearing under paragraph (1), the Administrator shall
consider the actions required by the order and any reasons
why the food that is the subject of the order should not
be recalled.
(d) Post-Hearing Recall Orders-
(1) AMENDMENT OF ORDER- If,
after providing an opportunity for an informal hearing
under subsection (c), the Administrator determines that
there is a reasonable probability that the food that is
the subject of an order under subsection (b), if consumed,
would present a threat to the public health, the
Administrator, as the Administrator determines to be
necessary, may--
(A) amend the order to
require recall of the food or other appropriate action;
(B) specify a timetable in
which the recall shall occur;
(C) require periodic reports
to the Administrator describing the progress of the
recall; and
(D) provide notice of the
recall to consumers to whom the food was, or may have
been, distributed.
(2) VACATION OF ORDERS- If,
after providing an opportunity for an informal hearing
under subsection (c), the Administrator determines that
adequate grounds do not exist to continue the actions
required by the order, the Administrator shall vacate the
order.
(e) Remedies Not Exclusive- The
remedies provided in this section shall be in addition to,
and not exclusive of, other remedies that may be available.
SEC. 404. INJUNCTION PROCEEDINGS.
(a) Jurisdiction- The district
courts of the United States, and the United States courts of
the territories and possessions of the United States, shall
have jurisdiction, for cause shown, to restrain a violation
of section 202, 203, 204, 208, or 401 (or a regulation
promulgated thereunder).
(b) Trial- In a case in which
violation of an injunction or restraining order issued under
this section also constitutes a violation of the food safety
law, trial shall be by the court or, upon demand of the
accused, by a jury.
SEC. 405. CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PENALTIES.
(a) Civil Sanctions-
(1) CIVIL PENALTY-
(A) IN GENERAL- Any person
that commits an act that violates the food safety law
(including a regulation promulgated or order issued
under the food safety law) may be assessed a civil
penalty by the Administrator of not more than $1,000,000
for each such act.
(B) SEPARATE OFFENSE- Each
act described in subparagraph (A) and each day during
which that act continues shall be considered a separate
offense.
(2) OTHER REQUIREMENTS-
(A) WRITTEN ORDER- The civil
penalty described in paragraph (1) shall be assessed by
the Administrator by a written order, which shall
specify the amount of the penalty and the basis for the
penalty under subparagraph (B) considered by the
Administrator.
(B) AMOUNT OF PENALTY-
Subject to paragraph (1)(A), the amount of the civil
penalty shall be determined by the Administrator, after
considering--
(i) the gravity of the
violation;
(ii) the degree of
culpability of the person;
(iii) the size and type
of the business of the person; and
(iv) any history of prior
offenses by the person under the food safety law.
(C) REVIEW OF ORDER- The
order may be reviewed only in accordance with subsection
(c).
(b) Criminal Sanctions-
(1) OFFENSE RESULTING IN
SERIOUS ILLNESS- Notwithstanding section 303(a) of the
Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21
U.S.C. 333(a)), if a violation of any provision of
section 301 of such Act (21
U.S.C. 301) with respect to an adulterated or
misbranded food results in serious illness, the person
committing the violation shall be imprisoned for not more
than 5 years, fined in accordance with title 18, United
States Code, or both.
(2) OFFENSE RESULTING IN
DEATH- Notwithstanding section 303(a) of the Federal Food,
Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21
U.S.C. 333(a)), if a violation of any provision of
section 301 of such Act (21
U.S.C. 331) with respect to an adulterated or
misbranded food results in death, the person committing
the violation shall be imprisoned for not more than 10
years, fined in accordance with title 18, United States
Code, or both.
(c) Judicial Review-
(1) IN GENERAL- An order
assessing a civil penalty against a person under
subsection (a) shall be a final order unless the person--
(A) not later than 30 days
after the effective date of the order, files a petition
for judicial review of the order in the United States
court of appeals for the circuit in which that person
resides or has its principal place of business or the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of
Columbia; and
(B) simultaneously serves a
copy of the petition by certified mail to the
Administrator.
(2) FILING OF RECORD- Not
later than 45 days after the service of a copy of the
petition under paragraph (1)(B), the Administrator shall
file in the court a certified copy of the administrative
record upon which the order was issued.
(3) STANDARD OF REVIEW- The
findings of the Administrator relating to the order shall
be set aside only if found to be unsupported by
substantial evidence on the record as a whole.
(d) Collection Actions for
Failure To Pay-
(1) IN GENERAL- If any person
fails to pay a civil penalty assessed under subsection (a)
after the order assessing the penalty has become a final
order, or after the court of appeals described in
subsection (b) has entered final judgment in favor of the
Administrator, the Administrator shall refer the matter to
the Attorney General, who shall institute in a United
States district court of competent jurisdiction a civil
action to recover the amount assessed.
(2) LIMITATION ON REVIEW- In a
civil action under paragraph (1), the validity and
appropriateness of the order of the Administrator
assessing the civil penalty shall not be subject to
judicial review.
(e) Penalties Paid Into Account-
The Administrator--
(1) shall deposit penalties
collected under this section in an account in the
Treasury; and
(2) may use the funds in the
account, without further appropriation or fiscal year
limitation--
(A) to carry out enforcement
activities under the food safety law; or
(B) to provide assistance to
States to inspect retail commercial food establishments
or other food or firms under the jurisdiction of State
food safety programs.
(f) Discretion of the
Administrator To Prosecute- Nothing in this Act requires the
Administrator to report for prosecution, or for the
commencement of an action, the violation of the food safety
law in a case in which the Administrator finds that the
public interest will be adequately served by the assessment
of a civil penalty under this section.
(g) Remedies Not Exclusive- The
remedies provided in this section are in addition to, and
not exclusive of, other remedies that may be available.
SEC. 406. PRESUMPTION.
In any action to enforce the
requirements of the food safety law, the connection with
interstate commerce required for jurisdiction shall be
presumed to exist.
SEC. 407. WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION.
(a) In General-
(1) PROHIBITION- No Federal
employee, employee of a Federal contractor or
subcontractor, or covered individual may be discharged,
demoted, suspended, threatened, harassed, or in any other
manner discriminated against, because of any lawful act
done by the employee or covered individual to--
(A) provide information,
cause information to be provided, or otherwise assist in
an investigation regarding any conduct that the covered
individual reasonably believes constitutes a violation
of any law, rule, or regulation, or that the covered
individual reasonably believes constitutes a threat to
the public health, when the information or assistance is
provided to, or the investigation is conducted by--
(i) a Federal regulatory
or law enforcement agency;
(ii) a Member or
committee of Congress; or
(iii) a person with
supervisory authority over the covered individual (or
such other individual who has the authority to
investigate, discover, or terminate misconduct);
(B) file, cause to be filed,
testify, participate in, or otherwise assist in a
proceeding or action filed or about to be filed relating
to a violation of any law, rule, or regulation; or
(C) refused to violate or
assist in the violation of any law, rule, or regulation.
(2) DEFINITION- For the
purposes of this section, the term ‘covered individual’
means an individual who is an employee of--
(A) a food establishment;
(B) a food production
facility;
(D) a retail food
establishment other than a restaurant;
(E) a nonprofit food
establishment in which food is prepared for or served
directly to the consumer;
(G) an agent of any of the
above.
(b) Enforcement Action-
(1) IN GENERAL- A covered
individual who alleges discharge or other discrimination
by any person in violation of subsection (a) may seek
relief under subsection (c) by filing a complaint with the
Secretary of Labor. If the Secretary of Labor has not
issued a final decision within 180 days after the date on
which the complaint is filed and there is no showing that
such delay is due to the bad faith of the claimant, the
claimant may bring an action at law or equity for de novo
review in the appropriate district court of the United
States, which shall have jurisdiction over such an action
without regard to the amount in controversy.
(2) PROCEDURE-
(D) STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS-
An action under paragraph (1) shall be commenced not
later than 90 days after the date on which the violation
occurs.
(c) Remedies-
(1) IN GENERAL- A covered
individual prevailing in any action under subsection
(b)(1) shall be entitled to all relief necessary to make
the covered individual whole.
(2) COMPENSATORY DAMAGES-
Relief for any action described in paragraph (1) shall
include--
(A) reinstatement with the
same seniority status that the covered individual would
have had, but for the discrimination;
(B) the amount of any back
pay, with interest; and
(C) compensation for any
special damages sustained as a result of the
discrimination, including litigation costs, expert
witness fees, and reasonable attorney’s fees.
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