Obama Nominates FDA Commissioner In His Weekly Address

Speaking of New York City and Baltimore, here's Obama putting those cities in the limelight as he nominates Margaret Hamburg (New York City) and Joshua Sharfstein (Baltimore) for FDA Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner, respectively.


Transcript

The address this week highlighted food safety. Regarding the paltry number of current inspections, he said:

"That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable."

He also announced the creation of a new Food Safety Working Group:

"This Working Group will bring together cabinet secretaries [HHS and USDA] and senior officials to advise me on how we can upgrade our food safety laws for the 21st century; foster coordination throughout government; and ensure that we are not just designing laws that will keep the American people safe, but enforcing them."

This sounds like we're moving closer to having one Food Safety Agency, to realizing the intent of the Safe Food Act. They may be just words right now, but I loved hearing them.

(I'm not familiar with Hamburg or Sharfstein, except from what I've read. If you are, please share. Melinda linked to this post on Hamburg by NPR's Joanne Silberner.)
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