In a letter to three federal agency heads on Tuesday, a group of 79 bipartisan members of the United States House of Representatives expressed concern about the direction being taken to regulate agriculture biotechnology.
In particular, in the letter to Scott Pruitt, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Scott Gotlieb, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the lawmakers pointed to two regulations currently being re-drafted.
On Jan. 19, 2017, USDA’s Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service published a draft revision to its so-called Part 340 biotechnology regulations. Also, the FDA proposed expansion of the scope of guidance for industry to regulate gene-editing techniques.
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The lawmakers urge the agencies to continue to work with stakeholders to improve the proposals.
American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall said in a statement in response that farmers and ranchers need proper federal direction to continue to make technological gains.
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Duvall urged the department and agency leaders to coordinate and advance timely reviews of advances in biotechnology and biology-based tools including gene editing. He said policies and strategies should embrace the review of innovation, domestically and internationally, through the president’s Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Lawmakers Urge Consistent Approach to Federal Regulation of Biotechnology
