WASHINGTON—The Senate has decided not to supplement the Wall Street Reform Bill (S. 3217) with proposed legislation to broadly expand the FTC powers. The Natural Products Association (NPA), which has worked hard to mobilize their member base against such expansion, reported this legislation would likely have resulted in additional advertising rules on the industry and weakened protections currently provided by Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA).
NPA noted more than 28,000 messages were sent to Congress during the past two months via the NPA Web site. John Gay, NPA’s executive director and CEO, called this FTC expansion bill one of the top legislative priorities for the NPA for the last six months. “I am proud of the way our members responded to our calls to write their senators and representatives, and to urge their customers to do the same,” he said. “I am also proud of the hard work put in by our staff and lobby team. Good grassroots and good lobbying are a powerful combination.”
From the emergence of this threat in December 2009, NPA joined forces with more than 50 trade associations to lobby Congress and run ads in Capitol Hill publications. NPA was by far the leading organization in producing grassroots contacts with senators and representatives. “Some of our members might have gotten tired of hearing from us on this issue, but sometimes in Washington persistence pays off,” Gay said. “Like any legislative victory involving a broad coalition, this battle was won thanks to a number of factors, but NPA members can and should claim a large share of the credit. Their response was tremendous.” He stressed, however, one victory is not cause to let the guard down, as there are many on Capitol Hill who are clamoring for overregulation of supplements and are planning their next moves.
The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) also led the efforts against this legislation and issued a positive reaction to the news the addition was rejected.
“The provision, if passed, would have negatively impacted the dietary supplement industry—and many other industries—because it would have given FTC free-reign to rewrite its own advertising regulations; this would have come at the expense of consumers who would not have been able to obtain complete information about consumer products,” said Mike Greene, vice president of government relations for CRN. “The success of ensuring this detrimental provision was not included in the bill further demonstrates the importance of maintaining credibility on Capitol Hill—in addition to our reputation on the Hill, we were also part of a broader coalition of many industries dedicated to making sure this provision was not part of the final bill.” He added if FTC can provide evidence to Congress as to why it requires additional authority over industry advertising, this issue should be addressed in the FTC Reauthorization Act in the Energy and Commerce Committee, “not tacked on to the financial regulatory reform legislation.”