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CU President letter asks Deficit Reduction Committee to protect consumers


October 19, 2011
Representative Jeb Hensarling, Co-Chair
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction
129 Cannon House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Senator Patty Murray, Co-Chair
Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction
448 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Murray and Representative Hensarling:
As you and your fellow members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction continue to work on deficit reduction, Consumers Union, the advocacy and policy division of Consumer Reports, would urge you to ensure that consumers’ safety, health, and financial security are protected.
Working consumers have invested in Medicare’s promise of decent healthcare, and that promise should be honored. So should our nation’s shared commitment to ensure that poor children, nursing-home residents, and the disabled get the healthcare they need.
At the same time, an expensive and inefficient health-care system weakens confidence in our future, so we must build upon recent reforms to bring down health-care costs while guaranteeing quality care.
Fair and strong rules to hold companies and government accountable for the safety of the products we buy, the medicines we take, and the financial services we use must continue to be enforced.
The Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau must have the authority to carry out food inspections, set up a database to report hazardous products, and prevent financial traps. Disabling or defunding those and other consumer protection initiatives would be shortsighted and harmful to all Americans.
At Consumer Reports we have a 75-year history of independence and nonpartisanship. We urge you to use your full range of options to ensure that consumers are not put at risk and the country does not abandon its longstanding commitments to American consumers.
Sincerely,
Jim Guest
President and CEO
cc: Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction Members
Senator Max Baucus
Representative Xavier Bacerra
Representative Dave Camp
Representative James Clyburn
Senator John Kerry
Senator Jon Kyl
Senator Rob Portman
Senator Pat Toomey
Representative Fred Upton
Representative Chris Van Hollen
For the letter in a PDF format, click here.

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