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NHF Opposes

S.3546

Dietary Supplement and Nonprescription Drug Consumer Protection Act

Sample Petition Letter

Bill Analysis

H.R.6168

Dietary Supplement and Nonprescription Drug Consumer Protection Act

Sample Petition Letter

House Majority Leader Needs to Hear

From Consumers
December 7, 2006

S.853 / H.R.2672

North American Cooperative Security Act

Sample Petition Letter / Petition

1/19/2006 Alert

S.1873.IS (Introduced in Senate)
S.1873.RS (Reported in Senate)

Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug Development Act of 2005

H.R.3970

Bioterror and Pandemic Preparedness Protection Act
H.R.2863

Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2006

Petition

12/6/05 S.1873 Alert

S.729 / HR.1507

Safe Food Act of 2005

Petition

Petition

S.722

Dietary Supplement Safety Act (AMTA)

Petition

S.1538

DSHEA Full Implementation &

Enforcement Act

Petition

HR.3377

Dietary Supplement Access and

Awareness Act

Petition

HR.207

To amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the placing of certain natural anabolic dietary supplements on the schedules of controlled substances.

S.1780

Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2003

Durbin/Hatch DSHEA Amendment

Petition

HR.4760

DSHEA Full Implementation &

Enforcement Act

This extremely flawed legislation will mandate needless FDA regulations that will treat supplements like drugs (repealing DSHEA), raise the price of supplements to consumers, and obligate supplement manufacturers, packers and distributors to notify the FDA of serious adverse events reports (AERs) associated with the use of a dietary supplement that result in death, a life-threatening experience, inpatient hospitalization, persistent or significant disability, congenital abnormality or birth defect, or an event that requires a medical or surgical intervention to prevent such outcomes. The bill’s use of the words “associated with” rather than the words “caused by” could result in “guilt by association”, whereby any serious adverse event experienced by any one of the 70% of Americans who consume dietary supplements could be attributed to their supplements rather than to their cigarette or alcohol use, prescription drug use, poor dietary habits, etc. As such, this bill could potentially destroy the availability of effective dietary supplements in America by associating their usage with serious health events.

Update:  September 28, 2006 - AER bill introduced in the House. Click here to see the alert message to NHF members.

Update: October 2, 2006 - Click the following link for the latest information regarding S. 3546 / H.R. 6168: "AER Still Not Acted On"

Update:  December 7, 2006 - NHF Priority Alert - Click here.

Update:  12/7/2006 The Senate passed S. 3546 by unanimous consent last night

Update:  12/9/2006 Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 203 - 98

Update:  12/22/2006 The office of Orrin Hatch (R-UT), has had confirmation that President Bush will sign the S. 3546 (AER) legislation before the December 27, 2006 pocket veto date.

This legislation will destroy America. Touted as legislation to protect the American public from terrorism, directing the Secretary of State to establish a program for mutual safety of the U.S., Canada, & Mexico, and for other purposes, other purposes happen to be to erase our borders with Canada & Mexico creating The North American Union, ending U. S. sovereignty as we know it, with our dietary supplement laws harmonized to restrictive international standards.  Read the Alert, inform others, and immediately contact your Congress-people to OPPOSE these radical bills.

This legislation being fast-tracked through Congress, shortcuts testing procedures for new vaccines/drugs during a pandemic or health emergency, is anti-consumer in its secretiveness, eliminates the right to trial due to vaccine injury, absolves vaccine manufacturers from legal liability due to adverse reactions, and sets the stage for forced vaccinations, with non-compliance being quarantine or imprisonment.

Update:  Please click here for details.

Sen. Richard Durbin (Asst. Minority Leader for the Democrats) has reintroduced SB729 under the pretext of the need for food safety protection, thereby creating a new federal food safety agency. This is very dangerous legislation for consumers of dietary supplements as it would repeal the DSHEA Act of 1994, and if signed into law, as currently proposed, dietary supplements would be reclassified and regulated like drugs. The companion bill, HR 1507, was introduced by Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro. Both introduced similar legislation at the end of the last Congress. This "Food Czar" legislation needs your opposition. Please use the petitions to contact your Senators and Congresspeople now.
 

DHEA will move from a current safe supplement to the list of controlled substances classifying it as an anabolic steroid if opposition is not mounted against this new bill. It was introduced in the Senate May 2005 by John McCain (R-Arizona), George Allen (R-Virginia), and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Please take action to oppose S.1137 or DHEA will no longer be obtainable.

The Dietary Supplement Regulatory Implementation Act, H.R.2510, is pending before the Congress. The bill is similar to H.R.2485, but includes provisions that are anti-supplements in their purpose. The bill proposes to authorize more money for the FDA to fully implement the DSHEA law. It also supports the FDA's actions in banning supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids and would establish mandatory reporting of adverse medical events for dietary supplements. Under current law, Americans can already voluntarily file reports with the FDA. A collective educational grassroots effort is needed to ensure that this bill goes nowhere in this Congress.

Legislation has been introduced to fully fund the implementation of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). The bill, H.R.2485, specifies annual increases in FDA funding levels for DSHEA, but does not actually give permission for the authorized spending increases for FDA activities. Rewarding FDA bureaucrats for non-performance is bad government. Dietary supplement consumers want more health freedom of choice and less interference from the FDA. Granting the FDA more money for a law that it has not been able to carry out in the first place is counter productive to good governance.

Susan Davis (CA), Henry Waxman (CA), and John Dingell (MI) have introduced anti-DSHEA legislation to aggressively monitor, regulate, and burden supplements, which are currently already being monitored by the FDA. This proposed law basically requires that the same restrictions be placed on food supplements as are currently placed on drugs at this time. This will be the end to DSHEA as we currently know it because it will reduce DSHEA protections to just a few vitamins and minerals and require that all other forms of supplements be regulated like drugs.

Severely threatens DSHEA by requiring “adverse event reports” to be made to the FDA on any dietary supplement “problem,” which FDA can then use to regulate the supplement like a drug. Plus, it would place certain other supplements in the same controlled substances list as heroin and cocaine. Prices will soar and some supplements will be made illegal.

UPDATE:  Has not been reintroduced.

This bill would give FDA more than 200 million over a multi-year period to “implement” the FDA’s anti-supplement view of DSHEA, which we all know is not our view of DSHEA. You can be sure that this money will not promote health-freedom. The FDA needs to be on a fiscal diet, not fed more money by naïve do-gooders.  UPDATE:  Has not been reintroduced.

This "Son of Durbin" legislation is very dangerous as it will alter the original intent of the 1994 DSHEA law. All non-vitamin & mineral supplements would be subject to prescription drug-like FDA approval, post-market surveillance and adverse-event reporting requirements. This will decimate the dietary supplement industry and consumers rights. Only vitamin/mineral supplements would still be covered by DSHEA.  UPDATE:  Replaced by HR.3156.

This will re-classify safe, over-the-counter nutritional supplements into controlled substances. To use the Controlled Substances Act to ban many of these products is an abuse of the law, and would set a disturbing precedent that will open the door for criminalization of other healthful dietary supplements. It is yet another attempt to reduce our health choices and expand FDA control over our bodies and lives.  UPDATE:  Has not been reintroduced.

This bill, proposed by Sen. Joseph Biden, would remove the words ”promotes muscle growth” from the definition of an anabolic steroid, specifically exempt DHEA, and make a long list of prohormones into anabolic steroids. Secondly, it has asked for harsher punishments for steroid offenses, which would now include possession of prohormones by adult Americans.  UPDATE:  Replaced by S.1137.

This bill would give FDA more than 200 million over a multi-year period to “implement” the FDA’s anti-supplement view of DSHEA, which we all know is not our view of DSHEA. You can be sure that this money will not promote health-freedom. The FDA needs to be on a fiscal diet, not fed more money by naïve do-gooders.  Update:  Replaced by HR.2485.

S. 1082 and its attached Dorgan amendment cause this bill to be two-fold in nature. S. 1082 must be opposed as it will create an independent "Foundation" of the FDA with mostly a drug industry board for supposed "scientific" endeavors. The "Foundation" will access "risky supplements" also which is where the danger lies. S.1082 proponents despise the Dorgan amendment and inclusion of his amendment most probably will kill the S.1082 bill.

NHF Supports

H.R.4282

Health Freedom Protection Act

Petition

Click here for the

Hon. Ron Paul Statement on H.R. 4282

H.J.RES.27

Withdrawing the approval of the United States from the Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization

Petition

Click here to see the

Roll Call List of Support Votes
 

Click here to view the sample

"Thank You for Your Support" letter

S.334

H.R.700
Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act of 2005

Petition

H.R.2352
Consumers' Access to Health Information Act

Petition

H.R.1545

Dietary Supplement and Healthy Meal Replacement Tax Parity Act of 2005

Petition

H.R.2486

Dietary Supplement Tax

Fairness Act of 2005

Petition

HR.2085

 The Access to Medical Treatment Act (AMTA)

Petition

HR.4004

Health Information Independence Act
 

HR.2627

Dietary Supplement Tax

Fairness Act of 2003

Petition

Stop the FDA from censoring truthful claims about dietary supplements and FTC censorship of advertising.

Legislative status: Has 23 Sponsors and is pending the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Update: Please click here for details.

Calls for the withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Trade Organization (WTO), and U.S. participation in the United Nations Codex Commission. Imposition of Codex regulations covering dietary supplements could force the FDA to regulate supplements like drugs, as is being recommended by Codex for member countries. The U.S. has the option (every 5 years) to introduce a privileged resolution to force the House & Senate to vote on continued participation in the WTO or to withdraw. If joint resolution to withdraw is introduced, resolution goes to the floor of the opposite house within 90 days for a vote. 6/9/05- Resolution will be debated and voted on in the House.

H.J.Res.27 was voted down 86 to 338 against.
 

Would allow U.S. residents through pharmacists and prescription drug wholesalers to reimport prescription drugs from Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, and certain European Union nations.

Legislative Status: SB 334 has 31 sponsors and pending in the Senate Health, Education, Labor, Pensions Committee. HR 700 has 18 sponsors and pending in the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Clarifies that truthful health labeling claim on a food or a dietary supplement shall not cause a food or supplement to be regulated as a drug by the FDA.

The bill would allow people to claim a medical expense deduction for meal-replacement and dietary-supplement products that have been or do, in the future, qualify for FDA-approved health claims. H. R. 1545 has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. At this time, no similar Senate bill has been introduced.

This bill allows patients and their physicians the freedom to make medical-treatment choices, allowing for access to devices, therapies, and alternative medical treatments that haven't yet passed FDA approval because they are not financially viable.  UPDATE:  Replaced by HR.2792.

Congressman Ron Paul introduced this bill to the U.S. Congress, to reform the way the FDA assesses health information that manufacturers wish to give on the labels of foods and supplements. This act restores the right of consumers to purchase the dietary supplements of their choice and receive accurate information about the health benefits of foods and dietary supplements.  UPDATE:  Replaced by HR.2352.

Congressman Dan Burton introduced this bill to Congress to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that amounts paid for foods for special dietary use, dietary supplements, or medical foods shall be treated as medical expenses. The co-sponsoring of this bill will allow dietary supplements to be added to the list of products and services covered as legitimate health care costs by the IRS, thereby making natural health more affordable, preventing illness, and thereby lowering the current escalating health care costs of our nation.  UPDATE:  Replaced by HR.2486.