Thursday oversight hearing - Senate Agriculture Committee

Next couple of weeks should be a time to take measure of legislative efforts to reform food safety. Senate Ag this week, House Energy and Commerce next week. From the office of Sen. Tom Harkin:

Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, today announced the list of witnesses who will testify during a hearing “Examination of Federal Food Safety Oversight in the Wake of Peanut Products Recall.” The committee will meet in open session at 10:00 AM on Thursday, February 5, 2009 in Room 216 of the Hart Senate Office Building.

Witnesses for the proceeding will include:

Panel I

Dr. Stephen Sundlof, Director, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Rockville, MD

Dr. Ali S. Khan, Assistant Surgeon General and Deputy Director of the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-borne, and Enteric Diseases, Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA

Panel II

Ms. Gabrielle Meunier, Mother of affected child, South Burlington, VT

Ms. Caroline Smith DeWaal, Director, Program on Food Safety, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Washington, DC

Mr. William Hubbard, Former Senior Associate Commissioner for Policy, Planning and Legislation, Food and Drug Administration, Chapel Hill, NC