The Food Safety Modernization Act will be passed by the end of the year, a United States’ representative vowed Wednesday.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who predicted in October the food safety overhaul bill would be delayed until 2010 in Congress, reiterated her time prediction at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit.

"I have every confidence that we are going to pass food safety legislation and this legislation is going to get to the president for a signature and that that's going to happen this year," said DeLauro, chairman of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.

In the next couple months, the subcommittee will hold hearings to examine whether new trade agreements negotiated by the U.S. should include food safety provisions, DeLauro said, according to Reuters. The Obama administration has three pending U.S. trade deals, which includes measures to protect worker rights and the environment.

"We need to do something before the agreement is put into place that guarantees that the product and its process and its manufacture is equal to the process that exists in the United States," she said.

The modernization act, Senate Bill 510, was introduced in March 2009 and was referred to committees. Last fall, DeLauro blamed the health care bill and issues regarding the economy as reasons why the Senate couldn’t focus on S. 510.

S. 510 is the companion bill to H.R. 2749, which passed the House in July 2009, but is awaiting Senate and presidential approval.

Source:

Reuters. “Delauro sees U.S. food safety law in 2010,” http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62G46520100317; 17 March 2010.