U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. 5th District, voted to end what she termed “frivolous” obesity lawsuits against food manufacturers and distributors by voting Thursday for H.R. 554, the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act.
Mt. Airy News
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C. 5th District, voted to end what she termed “frivolous” obesity lawsuits against food manufacturers and distributors by voting Thursday for H.R. 554, the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act.
Also known as the “Cheeseburger Bill,” it passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 307-119.
“In a country where we have the personal responsibility for making our own informed food choices, we can either make good nutrition decisions or live with the consequences of bad decisions,” Foxx said in a news statement. “Passing this bill is a step in the right direction toward preventing frivolous lawsuits that claim a restaurant is responsible for a person’s weight problems.”
“No consumer is ever forced to eat a cheeseburger instead of a salad,” she said. “For years, nutrition information has been publicly available at major chain restaurants. People make meal choices every day and in turn need to accept the consequences of those choices.”
The bill prohibits lawsuits against food industry companies for individuals’ weight gain, obesity and related health conditions. The bill does not prohibit lawsuits involving tainted food or misleading nutritional information.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said potential costs from the obesity lawsuits threaten the food industry and its 12 million employees and raise food prices for consumers.
“These suits would be laughable if they were not so harmful,” Sensenbrenner said.
According to The Associated Press, courts have dismissed most obesity claims, but an appeals court in New York reinstated one lawsuit against Mc-Donald’s earlier this year and it is still pending. Twenty-one states’ legislatures already have passed laws protecting the food industry against such lawsuits.
“But of course this silly legislative effort has nothing to do with encouraging personal responsibility and everything to do with pleasing a powerful and politically connected industry,” said Michael Jacobson, director of the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest. His group says a preferable alternative to the legislation is to encourage people to take personal responsibility for their health and physical condition.
The bill now goes to the Senate, which received similar legislation from the House in 2004, but did not act on it.
——— On the Net: Information on the bill, H.R. 554, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov
