Other Republicans on Smith’s panel called out the pharmaceutical and food industries, as well as the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, for the dire state of Americans’ health and for high health care prices.
GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania praised Kennedy’s pressure campaign to get food companies to remove artificial dyes, said the dyes cause cancer, and asked what could be done to regulate the food industry.
Kennedy told him to close a loophole that has for decades allowed foodmakers to introduce new ingredients into their products without federal oversight — the so-called Generally Recognized as Safe standard at the Food and Drug Administration. Food companies say eliminating it will only make food more expensive and stifle innovation.
Foodmakers got little sympathy, though.
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), a urologist, said he’d recently treated a 262-pound 8-year-old. He blamed “the terrible, terrible tragedy that has become the American food industry” and said it was sad that weight-loss drugs were some of the top medicines sold in the country.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, acknowledged concerns about the high gas prices the war with Iran has triggered.