At a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) questioned Sec. RFK Jr. about the banning of certain dyes used in food.
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00:00Anyway, let me recognize Mr. Fleischman.
00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:04Mr. Secretary, good morning.
00:05I'm Chuck Fleischman.
00:06I represent the 3rd District of Tennessee.
00:09That's East Tennessee, Chattanooga, Oak Ridge.
00:12I want to thank you for stepping up in this important role and serving our great president,
00:17President Trump, in all of your endeavors.
00:20I want to begin with a thank you because I am going to have some questions later about
00:29some other issues, but thanking you for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation
00:34under HHS.
00:36What it does with Oak Ridge, which was the birthplace of the Manhattan Project, Oak Ridge National
00:42Laboratory in my district, it works to make sure that the Energy Employee Occupational
00:49Illness Compensation Program at the Department of Energy is run well, and it is.
00:54This keeps our hardworking civilian employees insured and cared for long after their years
00:59of service.
01:00So that's a profound thank you to you and yours for running that so well.
01:06Mr. Secretary, I'm going to talk a little bit about the Food and Drug Administration.
01:15That is under my dear colleague and friend Andy Harris's jurisdiction.
01:19I chair Energy and Water, but while I have you here, Mr. Secretary, I know the FDA has
01:24taken significant steps to ban or phase out synthetic food colorings over the years, and
01:30I respect that.
01:31The current colors, though, Mr. Secretary, that are used and have been approved by FDA have
01:37been deemed safe for many years.
01:40Candidly, I represent many snack manufacturers.
01:43I'm a big fan of the oatmeal cream pie, and in many ways, I have M&Ms in my district.
01:56I know you're going to come and visit me in a couple weeks.
01:59We can all have some M&Ms and Little Debbies together.
02:03But on a very serious note, we want to make sure that FDA has done due diligence to ensure
02:11the safety of these replacement colors.
02:13Will you work with me on that?
02:15Because candidly, I think these dyes are safe.
02:18They've been approved.
02:19But really, trying to find substitutes, the costs, we've seen estimates five to ten times
02:24try to fix that.
02:25Will you work with me on that, sir?
02:27Absolutely, Congressman.
02:29And one of the, I think, the really important accomplishments that we've done over the past
02:35hundred days, is we've been working with the food industry, and we found the food industry
02:41very, very receptive.
02:43We think we have good science that links almost all of these dyes with ADHD, with neurological
02:48injury, with cancer.
02:51And they've agreed to phase out the two worst of them, which is orange bee and red citrus
02:59number three, within two months, and the other seven dyes within two years.
03:08And some of the food companies, like Tyson's Food, have already eliminated them because of
03:15our talks.
03:16They asked us to do one thing.
03:18They said, can we try to fast track the vegetable dye substitutes that we need?
03:25And we have fast tracked those, and we've already got them approved.
03:29So we have three dyes approved this week that are substitute dyes that can be used by the
03:34food industry.
03:35And we're going to continue to respond to the needs of the food industry.
03:39We're going to continue to work with them.
03:42And I'm happy to work with you, Congressman.
03:44And I thank you.
03:45I thank you for your question and your answer and your response.
03:48Mr. Secretary, I wanted to talk with you about this subcommittee's oversight of the 340B
03:53Drug Discount Program.
03:55I'm a strong supporter of that.
03:57I have hospitals in my district.
03:59It provides funding to safety net community health centers, hospitals, and other health care
04:03providers with discounts from prescription drug sales.
04:09CHCs and rural hospitals across Tennessee have become dependent upon this program.
04:13Just a question, sir.
04:15We've heard that this department will move oversight from HRSA to CMS.
04:22Can you either confirm or deny that, sir?
04:24I can't because of the court order.
04:26But I can tell you, you know, the 340B program, as you know, it's not a straightforward program
04:36because it was originally intended to for 100 institutions that were serving very poor communities.
04:44It's now grown to 27,000 institutions.
04:48The patients themselves seldom get the benefits of the drug reduction.
04:53And actually, 100,000 if you look at all the kind of satellite institutions.
04:58But we also recognize that it is the lifeblood of rural hospitals right now.
05:04So, we can't mess with that program without giving those rural hospitals something else
05:10that is going to support them.
05:11And we understand that.
05:13Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
05:14I can tell you that drug companies are worried because if we do what President Trump wants,
05:21which is, you know, through compliance with the executive order to go to the most favored nation,
05:25it will lower the price of all drugs, which means it will further lower the cost of 340B drugs.
05:32And they consider that existential.
05:34So, that is a problem that we all need to work out together.
05:38Mr. Bocan.
05:40Thank you, Mr. Bocan.