CRN ensures its voice is heard on the Hill

WASHINGTON - The Council for Responsible Nutrition last week notched its 12th "Day on the Hill," where 75 senior supplement industry executives spend a day with legislators and their staffers discussing the predominant supplement issues of the day. 

 

"For CRN, it's always been a priority to ensure that our messages are being heard, that we let members of Congress know that there is a mainstream, responsible dietary supplement industry and to get those people in front of members of Congress," Mike Greene, CRN VP government relations, told Drug Store News. "[Last week] we reminded members of Congress and their staff that dietary supplements are regulated. We talked about all of the regulation that the responsible industry has been involved in, whether it be working with the Senate to get a serious adverse event report law on the books to provide post-market surveillance for dietary supplements, or, just last year working with Senators and the House of Representatives on the Designer Anabolic Steroid Control Act, which gave DEA more authority to remove anabolic steroids from the market and ... anabolic steroids masquerading as dietary supplements."

 

In related news, the three proposed amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act regarding supplement regulation among the nation's military that CRN had characterized as duplicative of current laws, unnecessary and burdensome were not included in the final write-up of the bill, the association reported. 

 

"We know the amendments could be brought up at a later date, and CRN intends to continue building our relationships on the Hill, including keeping the lines of discussion open with Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and making the case for getting illegal supplements off the market without interfering with the use and sale of legitimate dietary supplements," Greene said. "But for now, we credit this victory to all five trade associations working together to make sure that military access to supplements was not hindered.”