Congress Starves Food-Safety Law

A law protecting people from food-borne illnesses may not fulfill its mission because Congress has appropriated less than half of the $580 million it needs to do so. The Food Safety Modernization Act was enacted in 2010, after publicized incidents of food-borne illness. Michael Taylor, the FDA commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, told The New York Times that the law’s success “is on the line,” in part because Congress refuses to require food companies to pay for part of the program’s implementation.