Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act.

This bipartisan bill would protect small businesses from overbearing FDA regulations that harm workers, job creators, our economy, and, oh, by the way, personal freedom of choice for individual citizens, who, in most cases, make good decisions and ought to have a choice in America.

The FDA's poorly designed menu labeling requirements do not take into account the diversity of restaurants and of food products. That is America. The estimated cost for places like delis, convenience stores, and pizzerias to comply would be more than $1 billion.

Mr. Chairman, we are here today to offer a practical alternative that would rein in and clarify the FDA's burdensome, one-size-fits-all approach. This commonsense bill offers an efficient and, I believe, an effective solution by giving small businesses greater flexibility to provide nutrition information in a way that best serves their customers.

I urge its passage.

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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Chairman, I express appreciation to my colleague who offers this amendment; yet I rise in opposition because, in fact, this amendment undermines a key provision of the Common Sense--I will repeat that--the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, which is a bipartisan bill that makes necessary changes to the FDA's menu labeling regulations.

If, indeed, as has been stated, the FDA is willing to work and be flexible, we wouldn't need this legislation. It is because they have shown no real flexibility that this legislation has been offered.

Currently, FDA's menu labeling rules remain costly, ineffective, and overly burdensome for more than 70,000 restaurants. That is no small number, Mr. Chairman. For places like pizza shops, where the vast majority of orders are online--and, yes, they are providing a service, in most cases, online for their customers--they are voluntarily doing it and really doing it in a quality way. It is nearly impossible for a single menu board to be designed in a way that can provide accurate calorie counts for literally millions of combinations.

The FDA sadly ignores the realities of a diverse market and the technological advances, innovation, creativity, et cetera, by applying the same menu standard as a one-size-fits-all, top-down approach, and that is the reality that is out there with the FDA.

If the House accepts this amendment which strips the remote ordering provision from the bill, it would greatly harm a bill that seeks to provide an alternative method for thousands of small businesses to effectively share nutritional information with consumers.

The FDA menu requirements simply do not make sense neither for the restaurant nor for consumers.

I urge my colleagues to reject this amendment, however well meaning, and support the underlying bipartisan bill that protects small businesses from overbearing FDA regulations that harm workers, job creators, consumers, and our economy.

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Mr. WALBERG. Mr. Chair, I will respond just briefly to that. It is truly about making this information meaningful. I watch my wife go online on her iPhone to check calories all the time. She does it better than I do. But consumers are moving in that direction.

I have walked through various industries, including Domino's, and have seen the amazing technological advances that they have that are putting their consumers first and giving them the ability to know this in a far more meaningful way than you can do on a menu board. So I reject that argument, absolutely, in defense of the consumer as well as the industry.

Mr. Chair, again, I appreciate the concern that my colleague expresses here; yet, I still stand in very strong support of giving this opportunity, making sure that FDA is pushed into a flexibility that I don't believe they are willing to go. This is for the consumer in the end. This allows advances to move within the market.

I think we will find that all concerns are met and addressed very well, but we don't put unnecessary burdens upon businesses, job providers, and, ultimately, on the choice of citizens to have a better opportunity to make better choices. And, oh, by the way, we reaffirm in our country the desire to give people personal responsibility and personal choice together.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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