Bill · S. 376· Senate(119-S-376)
Expanded Food Safety Investigation Act of 2025
- Introduced
- 2/3/2025
- Last activity
- 2/3/2025 — Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
- Sponsored by
- Cory Booker
- Cosponsors
- - 1 - 0
- Introduced
- In Committee
What this bill would do
This bill, known as the "Expanded Food Safety Investigation Act of 2025," gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to perform microbial sampling at concentrated animal feeding operations. The Secretary may request this access to investigate foodborne illness outbreaks or to find their root causes. It also allows for sampling to address other public health needs. The bill requires these operations to provide reasonable access for the sampling of plants, animals, water, and the environment. Additionally, the Secretary must coordinate collected data with the Secretary of Agriculture and other public health agencies.
Yes· 3 of 5
Does this give the federal government more power?+4
The bill expands the FDA's authority to mandate access to private animal feeding operations for sampling purposes.
Does this make health care easier to get in general?+3
The bill enhances public health by allowing investigations into the root causes of foodborne illness outbreaks.
Does this make the country readier for the next outbreak?+2
By strengthening the ability to investigate foodborne illnesses, the bill improves the response to biological threats to the food supply.
The opposite
Would farmers be better off under this?-3
The bill imposes new regulatory access requirements and potential enforcement penalties on concentrated animal feeding operations.
Does this make it easier to run a small business?-2
The bill imposes new compliance and access requirements on concentrated animal feeding operations.
Does this invest in rural communities?-1
The mandate to provide access for microbial sampling creates a regulatory burden on large-scale agricultural operations often located in rural areas.
Who it would affect, and how
Potential Positive Impacts for People
-
Facilitating outbreak investigations: The Secretary can request access to conduct sampling to help investigate foodborne illness outbreaks, which addresses public health needs (Section 2(a)).
-
Determining root causes: This authority allows for determining the root cause of an outbreak of foodborne illness (Section 2(a)).
-
Information sharing for prevention: The Secretary is required to make collected data available to the Secretary of Agriculture and relevant State and Federal public health agencies to help in detecting, investigating, or preventing foodborne illness (Section 2(a)).
Potential Negative Impacts for People
-
Burden of sampling requirements: Concentrated animal feeding operations must provide reasonable access to the Secretary to conduct sampling of plants, animals, water, and the environment (Section 2(a)).
-
Legal consequences for refusal: Refusal to provide reasonable access for the required microbial sampling is considered a violation under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (Section 2(b)).
Groups and Interests Ranking
Every group the model scored this bill for, from -10 to +10. Hover a score for the reason it gave.
- Healthcare
- Improves Healthcare Access+3Improves Pandemic Preparedness+2
- Governance And Ideology
- Increases Federal Power+4
- Economy And Finance
- Improves Small Business Support-2
- Demographic And Interest Groups
- Good For Low Income Households+2Good For Farmers-3
- Environment Energy And Infrastructure
- Improves Environmental Protections+2Improves Rural Development-1
- 2/3/2025
- Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
- 1 Cosponsor added.
- Introduced in Senate
One bill Congress.gov lists as related to this one — companions in the other chamber, earlier versions, and bills this one absorbed or was folded into.
Richard BlumenthalDemocrat · Connecticut