Senator Cotton Introduces Bill to Consolidate Federal Food Safety Agencies

Washington, D.C. — Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) introduced the Study And Framework for Efficiency in Food Oversight and Organizational Design (SAFE FOOD) Act on May 21, legislation that would direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to conduct a study on the consolidation of federal agencies that have a primary role in ensuring food safety into a single agency.

“Current food safety oversight is spread across multiple federal, state and local agencies, which decreases efficacy, creates gaps and slows response times to potential public health risks,” said Cotton. “My bill is a commonsense step to expanding government efficiency and enhancing public health protection by unifying our food safety agencies.”

The SAFE FOOD Act would:

• Direct the USDA to conduct a study on the consolidation of federal food safety agencies into a single agency.
• Restructure the federal food safety system to enhance public health protections through a more unified and efficient system.
• Provide Congress recommendations to improve American food safety.

Read the full bill here.

Editor's Note: To read more on the effort to create a nationally integrated food safety system, revisit QA’s June 2023 feature, “Tale of the Cocktail Napkin: The Origin of the 25-Year Effort to Develop a Nationally Integrated Food Safety System.”