Health Law

Reid Promises E. coli Survivor Action on S. 510

By Dan Flynn and Suzanna Schreck

Linda Rivera, a Reno, Nevada woman who contracted E. coli from cookie dough and has been battling for her life for the past fifteen months, has been promised the Senate will move on the pending food safety bill, S. 510--the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. 

A constituent of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Rivera has also become a key advocate for a food safety bill that has been languishing in the Senate for months. Her story has been featured on CNN, Food Safety News, and in the Washington Post.

In a letter to the Rivera family, Reid promised in September 2009 that the Senate would take up the bill last fall. The legislation was unanimously approved by committee in mid-November, but came to a halt behind health care reform.

Reid called the Rivera family again this week to promise a vote on the pending food safety bill before the August recess.  As reported by Food Safety News, the bill would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the ability to enact mandatory recalls on products containing harmful pathogens.

This video clip shows Richard Rivera, Linda's husband, giving his take on the pending legislation.  In his words, if lawmakers, "could imagine their wife or their mother in bed for the last fifteen months fighting for her life," maybe they would finally act on the legislation that will save many lives.

Full post as published by Food Safety News on July 30, 2010 (boomark / email).