Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Rand Paul Offers an Amendment that Would End Raids on Natural Food Stores and Amish Farmers

Today on the U.S. Senate floor, Sen. Rand Paul introduced an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration User Fee Reauthorization bill, which would curb the Food and Drug Associations overreach and abuse of power. Sen. Paul’s amendment, No. 2143, would disarm the FDA, put an end to raids on natural food stores and Amish farmers, and stop FDA censorship of truthful claims of dietary supplements.

Below is Senator Paul's statement introducing the amendment:
President, today I’m offering an amendment to the FDA. I’m troubled by images of armed agents raiding Amish farms and preventing them selling milk directly from the cow. I think we have bigger problems in our country than sending armed FDA agents into peaceful farmers’ land and telling them they can’t sell milk directly from the cow.

My amendment has three parts. First, it attempts to stop the FDA’s overzealous regulations of vitamins, food and supplements by codifying the first amendment prohibition on prior restraint. What do I mean by that?

The first amendment says you can’t prevent speech, even commercial speech, in advance of the speech. You can’t tell cheerios that they can’t say there’s a health benefit to their Cheerios. Under our current FDA laws, FDA says if you want to market prune juice, you can’t say that it cures constipation.

You can’t make a health claim about a food supplement or about a vitamin, you can do it about a pharmaceutical, but you’re not allowed to do it about a health supplement.

I think this should change. There have been several court cases that show this goes against not only the spirit but the letter of the law of the First Amendment. So this amendment would change that.

This amendment would stop the FDA from censoring claims about curative, mitigative effects of dietary supplements. It would also stop the FDA from prohibiting distribution of scientific articles and publications regarding the role of nutrients in protecting against disease.

Despite four court orders condemning the practice as a violation of the First Amendment, the FDA continues to suppress consumers’ right to be informed and to make informed choices by denying them this particular information. It’s time for Congress to put an end to FDA censorship.

Second, my amendment would disarm the FDA.

Now, some of you might be surprised the FDA is armed. Well, you shouldn’t be.

We have nearly 40 federal agencies that are armed. I’m not against having police, I’m not against the army, the military, the FBI, but I think bureaucrats don’t need to be carrying weapons and I think what we ought to do, is if there is a need for an armed policeman to be there, the FBI who are trained to do this should do it. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to be arming bureaucrats to go on the farm to, with arms, to stop people from selling milk from a cow.

I think we have too many armed federal agencies, and that we need to put an end to this. Criminal law seems to be increasing, increasingly is using a tool of our government bureaucracy to punish and control honest businessmen for simply attempting to make a living.

Historically the criminal law was intended to punish only the most horrible offenses that everyone agreed were inherently wrong or evil, offenses like rape, murder, theft, arson – but now we’ve basically federalized thousands of activities and called them crimes.

If bureaucrats need to involve the police, let’s have them use the FBI, but I see no reason to have the FDA carrying weapons.

Today the criminal law is used to punish behavior such as even fishing without a permit, packaging a product incorrectly or shipping something with an improper label.

Simply said, the federal government’s gone too far.

The plain language of our Constitution specifies very few federal crimes. In fact, the Constitution originally only had four federal crimes and now we have thousands of federal crimes.

We’ve moved beyond the original intent of the Constitution. We don’t even know or have a complete list of all the federal crimes. It’s estimated there are over 4,000, but no one has an exact number.

Finally, my amendment will require adequate mens rea protection. In other words, when you have a crime, you’re supposed to prove the intent. People have to have intended to harm someone, it can’t be an honest mistake where a businessman or woman have broken a regulation and didn’t intend to harm someone. If you want to convict someone of a crime and put them in jail, it should be a mens rea requirement.

This is something we have had for hundreds of years, it comes out of our common-law tradition.

This amendment would fix this problem by strengthening the mens rea component of each of the prohibited acts and the FDA acts by including the words "knowing” and “willful" before we address and accuse someone of a crime.

This I think would give protection to folks who are guilty of inadvertently guilty of breaking a regulation and would keep from overflowing our jails. We’ve got plenty of violent criminals without putting people in for honest breaches of regulations. If Congress is going to criminalize conduct at the federal level as it does with the FDA act, the least it can do have is have an adequate mens rea requirement. My amendment will attempt to do this.

It’s not that we won’t have rules at the federal level, but the rules ought to be reasonable. We ought to allow people to market vitamins. There’s no earthly reason why somebody who markets prune juice can’t advertise it helps with constipation.

We’ve gone too far, and we’ve abrogated the First Amendment and what we need to do is tell the FDA that the courts have ruled that the First Amendment does apply to commercial speech and the FDA has been overstepping their bounds.

36 comments:

  1. i still dont like rand paul.

    he's always attempting to 'reform' government.

    his father has also been attempting to abolish government..

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    1. Well, yeah, he ain't perfect. BUT... If his name wasn't Paul, I bet you would think: "Hey that guy from Kentucky is ok".
      But then again, maybe not.

      BTW, not to be smarmy, which of the other 50 Senators DO you like?

      P.S. I am an anarcho - capitalist (AnCap), so I agree that Govt. should be abolished.

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    2. I still don't like government.

      It's always trying to reform people.

      Our Founding Fathers were also trying to abolish excessive government.

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    3. Ron Paul is not trying to abolish government; he is trying to get it back within its Constitutional bounds. It's the only way out of our economic mess, which was caused by the government and is made worse by it. We need to replace Crony Capitalism with free markets, which are the only sound way to run an economy and build prosperity. Isn't this obvious by now, or do you need four more years of Fascism?

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    4. let's stop calling it crony capitalism and say what it truly is... FASCISM! i'm with the Paul's on this one. the constitution is the law of the land and if government doesn't like it then they need to amend it through a vote of the people, not getting around it by way of executive orders and bureaucratic code. i for one will be contacting my representative and ask they support this one!

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    5. Government needs to be reformed. It's become a giant black hole sucking out & recklessly spending our hard earned tax dollars! As President Regan said: "We don't need government to solve the problem, government is the problem!"

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    6. This has made me LOVE Rand Paul. To Anonymous who doesn't like Rand Paul because he is always trying to reform government ...uh, are you nuts?? To Anonymous who says we should go by the Constitution, amen!!

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  2. Where are we on the Audit the Fed bill? What is he doing about it?

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  3. Seems like abolishment of parts of government to me.

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    Replies
    1. There's nothing wrong in that especially the unconstitutional parts.

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  4. There is no denying that, unlike his father, Rand Paul makes some political calculations to his maneuvers. But as far as I can tell his maneuvers have all fallen on the side of increased freedom, and he was courageous in standing up against the Patriot Act, indefinite detention, SOPA, CISPA, etc.

    Rand Paul is not his father. But he's still the most freedom-loving Senator we have. If he comes out saying things like "END THE FDA! ABOLISH THE FBI", unfortunately nothing will get done. With amendments like these that could actually pass, he moves the bar ever slightly forward He should be applauded for these efforts.

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    1. Great response. Could not agree more.

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    2. I couldn't agree more!! So much waste in out government. No wonder China owns out asses!

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  5. I just emailed my senators(as if it did anything) and told them to support this.

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  6. Anonymous-- so your sympathies lie with the government, not the many victims Rand identified. How sad.

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  7. This is a fantastic amendment. Please help it go viral.

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  8. Outstanding amendment, Senator!

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  9. Sen. Rand Paul Introduces Amendment to Rein in FDA Abuse - 05/23/12
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT8waPM9yYw&feature=colike

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  10. Dream a big ole dream!! This will never, ever happen. There is too much entrenched bureaucracy, and too many corrupt politicians in this country! People with cushy high paying jobs--that push paper, and regulate the most mundane aspects of our life's. They will fight to maintain status qua the best they can.

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    1. And then too, there are people like you who can't quit sending out negative vibes. Think positive and tell your friends to get on the bandwagon and let's put a stop to government tyranny.

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  11. Love this! Very well said Mr Paul!

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  12. YES! Keep going- and neuter the EPA as well!

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  13. Two laws:
    (1) Do all you say you will do; (2)Do not encroach upon another person or their property. Common Law. Let's make it simple. You need regulations because people will not take care of finding out the facts. "Buyer Beware" made everyone ask questions. We did not need to depend on a government to protect us only to make sure the wrong doers were punished for not following the two laws listed.
    Jerry

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    1. The only 2 laws needed in this country. That would take all the motive out of being a politician, too. Almost 100% shot down with the first and the balance made superfluous by the second.

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  14. Great for Senator Rand Paul! the intrusion of government into our lives and businesses has gone too far; to the point of hurting more then helping us. What ever happened to freedom for the individual to live and let live instead of being controlled by a few egotists in Washington. Some government is needed and the founding fathers gave us just how much!

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  15. Finally...someone with some common sense!

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  16. I hope that this bill is passed, the FDA does not work for us !!!.it works for the big business pharma-food companies.We need to change the laws regarding the medicinal use of Cannabis,and natural supplements that we can take without any side effects,unlike the regular poisoning pharma products. And stop the flouridation of our
    water supply.To inform the american people the dangers of:aspartame,
    genetic modify foods,High corn fructose Syrup.

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  17. Uh if yall didnt know we need reform...99% of our kings here are selling us out....

    The entire gov't must be gutted...we can no longer pay for these tyrants to continue and destroy our freedoms.

    Our founding fathers would be consider near all of them traitors to the constitution which they take an oath to uphold.

    The 10th Amendment clearly says the government may do NOTHING not expressly permissed by the constitution, and they do routinely.

    They have absolutely no authority over our medicines/foods/milk yet they continue to make our health thier business.

    Thomas Jefferson said "If we ever give gov't authority over our food and drugs, our bodies will be like our minds unto tyranny.

    God bless true Americans and our founding fathers, and may the traitors to the US constitution be brought to justice.

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  18. What are the odds of any government actually passing legislation to put limits on itself?

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  19. God bless America, to do that we must bless God. God is the authority. We must line up all our laws and regulation with God's
    laws for being a excelent citizen of this great earth before we can exspect a good outcome.

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  20. The lefties hate the Amish because they exemplify how all Americans used to live. They help each other, pay cash for everything and accept zero handouts.

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    1. As such they demonstrate how unimportant "The State" should be in everyone's lives.

      They better watch out the statists don't have them labeled them "terrorists" for their anti-nanny-state ways!

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  21. I applaud Rand Paul for his efforts to rein in government or reform it. Which ever way you look at it, if it limits their ability to intrude on our lives, it's a good thing. Generally, I believe that our left leaning brothers/sisters tend to take the approach that everone is bad or guilty until proven innocent hence all the regulations. Let good prevail and freedom rein supreme.

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  22. We all need to go "Amish" or "Galt" and let the government collapse.

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  23. His amendment was defeated 78-15, which demonstrates how much of the Senate is in zombie mode, controlled by influences well outside of their voter constituencies.

    Rubio was one of those who voted to table this. I think he has caved to the PTB and may be on his way to being just another pretty political prostitute.

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  24. Excellent amendment, but remember that to shape the govt to what it should be,we need to start at the local level and work up. Granted, that some drastic measures need to be taken in the mean time. Obama the FDA, EPA Justice Dept (Fast and Furious plot to take away legal guns) etc. Vote in Nov. and talk to at least one person every day until election and encourage others to start talking also.

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