Promise to make ottawa better, to change ottawa but, unfortunately, it is ottawa that has changed mr. Harper. Corruption has increased and thats part of his legacy but also it has become a more divisive place to a relationships with the provinces are more devices and meaner. I come out of provincial politics. I know its part of my job if i become Prime Minister since sit down with the provincial premiers to work with them on important issues facing them. At the things we want to bring forward ike quality, affordable childcare. One of the things i think is clear is that i disagree with these two gentlemen on a number of things. But the main thing i disagree with him on his lack of ambition for our country to mr. Harper wants you to think that are just as a possible. Thats not true. In this country better is always possible. Mr. Mulcair talks of making things better but isnt going to act on it because he has no plan to build the economy we need. Thank you very much. So ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. This muchanticipated globe and mail debate on the economy comes to an end to you for a wide range of different views, and in a months time it will be voting today. I would like to thank everyone whowho has joined us and made s even possible. The mayor for hosting us in calgary. We believe in the National Debate and im sure you agree that we got one tonight. Our final word of thanks of course to the three leaders, mr. Harper, mr. Mulcair, mr. Trudeau, we wish you all well. We know such a common interest in doing the best for candidate. You just have a different way of doing it. Stay with us. We will be carrying the post debate terms later but first, james other globe and mail joins us now to become the postdebate debate. I am the after and chief of the globe and mail. Thank you and have a good evening. [applause] [inaudible conversations] today former cia director and retired general David Petraeus goes before the Senate Armed Services committee answering questions on u. S. Middle east policy in combating i said. Ices. The popes visit to the u. S. , cspan has live coverage from washington, d. C. , the first up on the bookstore. Today beginning at 3 45 p. M. On cspan we live with the president and mrs. Obama to agreed upon upon his arrival at joint base entries. The acting commissioner of the fda, dr. Steve ostroff testified on food safety before a senate committee. He talked about the budget and appropriations process and a proper funding is crucial to food safety. Good afternoon. Eyewitnesses as well in the audience notices hearing will come to order it will focus on the food and Drug Administrations effort to improve and maintain safety of our food supply, and i thank you, doctor osac complete presents today. Mr. Taylor, mr. Tootle for participating. We are delighted with that and dr. Ostroff, i appreciate the warm working relationship we are building and i appreciate the on a number of issues over the last several months, so thank you for the way youre treating me as the new chairman of the subcommittee. You note in your testimony commissioner that nearly one in six americans are victims of foodborne illness each year. Americans expected to they purchased at a Grocery Store or website will be safe and the fda is largely tasked with maintaining that confidence. Passage of food safety modernization act in 2010 date the agency significant new responsibilities in implementing a very sweeping set of changes to the food safety laws, probably the largest, the largest change in the last 70 years. Our hearing today is timely as it follows last week published of the first to find a role for preventive controls on human and animal food. In delivering these new responsibilities are private sector partners expect transparency and certainly from the fda. When i speak to small businesss and Agricultural Producers in my home state their major concern is the government that limits job creation and stifles innovation through burdensome regulations. Im pleased the agency took many of the suggestions and comments from the Agriculture Community into account by repurposing portions of the fsma rules because they were unworkable for farmers and i thank you for that. Modernizing the greater good controls and educating industry and consumers are at the heart of fsma implementation. And the issuance of the preventive control rules starts the compliance process. Its vital if they continued in collaboration with industry and other agencies and issue proper guidance throughout this process. I also recognize that successful implementation, and this is the part you want me to say, mr. Commissioner, i also recommend the successful application does not come without a cost. This subcommittee remains committed to investing in fsmas implementation within the resources that are at our disposal and have done so since fsmas enactment in 2011 i think spinning of the last five years is increased 8 , something that cant be said for many other federal agencies. But we know you face additional challenges and additional task. And as the continuing process, the process continues for appropriations, fsma funding will undoubtedly play a significant role in our deliberations in establishing priorities. I look forward to discussing this and other topics with the witnesses today. Weblog to cover the second editor not to my colleague, senator merkley, for any remarks he may wish to give. Thank you for holding this hearing. Thank you, dr. Ostroff, mr. Taylor, mr. Tootle for attending the safety of a food supply something most americans take for granted. Parents heading to the Grocery Store for the most part dont have to give a Second Thought whether not the first theyre picking up will make the family sick. America has and continues at the safest food supply in the world, but that, of course, doesnt mean its perfect. As anyone whos ever had a foodborne illness will testify to, and we need to work to make sure we stay ahead of a changing global marketplace. We dont think anything about eating strawberries or balance out the seasons because we have access all of the colbert just ahead of us as a Monumental Task and their multiple agencies involved including usda regulates about 20 and 50 which regulates 80 . Outside of the outcome of state agencies, private businesses and farmers are making sure the processes in place will make sure a domestic canyon is always safe to eat as well as an imported strawberry. The food safety modernization act which was signed into law in 2011 was the most sweeping update of our food safety policy nearly 70 years. The law changed the way to look at the issue of food safety. Prior to fsma, we spend our time tracking down. We are working to make sure that we prevent that outbreak from occurring in the first place and getting fda the tools it needs to do just that. Its a better way to do business. The law had about 50 specific deliverables, no small task for any agency, although it took longer than many would like, fda published two of the seven major final rose last week and the rest will be out by next spring. We are at the point where the rubber meets the road and it will require a new way of thinking for food inspectors have been trained to look for an existing problem instead of working with interest to make sure those problems never materialized. Its not always smooth sailing. I know folks at 50 have learned a lot about production agriculture and food processing. I think most people would agree youve done a good job working with industry to make sure that these new rules are effective while minimizing the disruption. Thank you, mr. Chairman for holding this hearing. Its time and other interested to hear from our witnesses. Dr. Ostroff, again welcome and you me commend your testimony. It is a significant number of pages and ive extended the deadline from the normal five minutes to 10. So please proceed. Thank you, senator moran and other members of the committee. And i share your enthusiasm for the very warm working relationship that weve been able to develop in the last several months, and we look forward to continuing to work with you not on a food safety issues but all the other issues that fda deals with. Im steve ostroff, the acting commissioner of food and drug, had a really great deeply appreciate the opportunity for Michael Taylor at the same to my left to talk about the food safety modernization act, also known as fisma. I would also like to thank you for holding this hearing and for the Committee Members and ongoing interest in this particular topic and for the strong and growing working relationship that has developed between the committee and fda to achieve our mutual goals of assuring the safest food supply in the world for american consumers. I hope everybody in this room knows that this is food safety month, and i cant think of a better way to celebrate than by starting the process of bringing fsmas important new rules online as we did last week, and by discussing with you today the critical next steps that must be taken to realizing the goals of fsma. So although ive only been working at fda for two years, actually began my Public Health cover considerably before that 30 years ago and is working at the cdc on food safety and foodborne diseases. Particularly at that time the newly recognized and deadly pathogen e. Coli 0517. While working in Washington State over a twoyear period i personally interviewed every person or a member of their family in the state diagnosed with a particular infection and visited a number of them in their homes. I subsequent did the same with people with other illnesses from Foodborne Pathogens. So i can say without question that have a very deep appreciation for the suffering and consequences of foodborne illness and death carried that perspective throughout my career as a Public Health practitioner and as a physician. In fact foo that safety was the reason that i joined fda in 2013 at the urging of the person sitting to my left. Despite today have a much improved Technical Methods to detect and investigate foodborne illness from when i started my career 30 years ago, along with some notable successes in reducing the incidence of certain pathogens, there simply remains too much foodborne illness. As you mentioned, nearly one in six americans fall victim to foodborne illness each year. Thats 48 million people. Of these, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3000 die. This burden of foodborne illness issued by each and every one of us, consumers and Food Producers alike. The economic costs are also quite sizable. Since we know that the illnesses, the hospitalizations and deaths can be prevented, we must also, quite frankly, acknowledge that it is simply time to start preventing them. So over you on this side, cdcs food net data has shown that for many, many years now the burden of illness due to the major Foodborne Pathogens remains essentially unchanged. As you can see, the illness burden from some pathogens goes up while for others it goes down. But looking at the poster over on the other side of the room, in total the line remained distressingly flat. So i say to that it is time to make that line start painting in the right direction. We believe that we now have the tools to be able to do that, and that too too is called the food safety modernization act. During my time at fda i have been thrilled to be able to participate in the process of modernizing our food Safety System. This agency has stepped up to solve problems by identifying the best science and riskbased solutions that can benefit both consumers and industry. That is what we do at fda when we are confronted by such problems. I know that mike and his team have invented this concept into work to modernize the nations food Safety System through fsma so it can meet the challenges of a new global era. The enactment of fsma was unquestionably the product of foresight and the recognition of common interest. Members of congress on both sides of the aisle came together with consumers and with Food Industry leaders to enhance fsmas ability to protect the food supply in a modern, diverse world of free flowing commerce. Fisma stand for the proposition that the standard across the food system should be done assess is in place that we have learned, worked to prevent food safety problems. Problems that meaning food safety producers, practices and many food safety producers are already implementing the this means having prevention oriented standards in place that are equally applied to domestic and foreign producers, reasonable verification of compliance with those standards, and accountability for those who are unable or unwilling to comply. Fsma directs fda to build a modern food Safety System based on these essential ideas. Fda has fully embraced a dynamic collaborative approach to implementing fisma and is working very hard to build a new partnership and to strengthen existing ones. This effort includes the Food Industry from farmers and manufacturers to transporters and importers whose capacity and responsibility under fisma for producing seafood is the absolute foundation of the new system. It also includes the fdas Food Safety Partners and other Government Agencies at the federal, state, tribal and local levels, it also includes Foreign Government which can play an Important Role to help assure that the foreign supplies of the u. S. Market are being produced in safe fashion. And it includes consumers and Patient Advocates who have been victims of foodborne illness, because after all ultimately they are the ones that we are doing this for. The two final preventive control rules we issued last week our critical linchpins for building our new food Safety System. They focus on implementing modern Food Manufacturing processes for both human and animal foods, thus ensuring that Food Companies are taking a 247365 approach, and working with the fda to prevent problems on the front end rather than waiting until the problem is recognized for identifying people with foodborne illness as you happened in your state of kansas earlier this year. These rules are important in their own right but theyre only the first in a number of steps towards building a comprehensive food Safety System. Three more rules will be finalized by the end of this year. Those things produce rule, verification process and an accredited third party certification. The fine of two rules will be issued this spring, sanitary transport and attention adulteration put together these rules for the integrated holistic network for food safety called for by fisma, all based on the principle of prevention. Rules as good a big step, but it is only the first step. Right now to exist on paper. The bigger challenge a hideous and limiting those rules and making them exist on the ground. We strongly believe that if we do not implement the new fisma mandated food Safety System in the comprehensive way that congress envisioned right from the start, that we will fail to achieve the fisma gold with food safety, strengthen Consumer Confidence at a level Playing Field for u. S. Producers. Align mentioned earlier will not bend as it should and it must go. So im very proud of his work and im proud of our team. Michael taylor alone has been a force of nature when it comes to fsma. So please continue to work with us to achieve the level of funding that we need to accomplish on the ground what is set in statute and then well. American consumers are dependent on us, and expect his publisher colleges and i thank you again for your support of fda and for the opportunity to be a to discuss fsma with you. Commissioner, thank you very much. Let me begin just by asking, you outlined a scenario by which these rules will be announced. What was the basis for their prioritization . Is there something about these rules that make them more difficult them easier, more significant to pursue . What do we expect in the future . I will just say that they are all imported. The preventive control rules are probably amongst the most important of all of these rules, and theyre the ones that are expected to be implement it first. The process will be the same process for the next promulgation . I will that mike answered that the real issue these, the deadlines for these are set by the court. We are obligated to go to meet all of them and we will meet all of them, i can assure you that spent as the commission indicated these rules form a holistic package of standard the Congress Mandated to bring this comprehensive preventive system. Weve been through a dialogue with our stakeholders that will address all of these rules because they have to fit together. We have have a coherent package of regulations. We are at the end of the process in terms of going to the notice and comment, public meetings, dialogues, so now we able to issue the rules in final. So the sequencing has something to do as well with just the capacity to get rules out the door and give breathing room between rules. So we are on track to get these rolls out on that timeline just as the commission indicated. So, mr. Chairman, if i might, might can just make a couple comments about the implication plan and that may help put some of this in context. Well again this is a large public an usher your questions will draw it out in detail, but we are embarking on implementation deeply cognizant of the challenges, hundreds of thousands of facilities, the complexity, the supply chain. But we know we can meet this challenge because weve got climate of stakeholders. Weve done the homework, had the dialogue. The thing that would provide is an overview, some of the themes that we are pursuing, undergirding the implementation we think are