The House Committee on Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, held hearings last week on the regulation of dietary supplements under DSHEA, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. Testifying at the hearings were:

Robert E. Brackett, Ph.D., Director, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Paul M. Coates, Ph.D., Director, Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

C. Lee Peeler, Deputy Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission

Kathleen Jordan, MS, RD, General Manager, Dietary Supplement Certification Program, on behalf of NSF International

V. Srini Srinivasan, Ph.D., Vice President, Verification Program, The United States Pharmacopeial Convention, Inc.

Tod Cooperman, MD, President, ConsumerLab.com

Janell Mayo Duncan, Senior Counsel, Consumers Union of U.S., Inc.

For the Committee's web page with links to the transcripts of all the testimony, click here.

According to Natural Products Insider, the testimony at the hearing was all supportive of DSHEA and the current regulatory scheme for dietary supplements. In particular, CFSAN director Brackett was quoted as saying that "[DSHEA] does provide the ability for us to take action on unsafe dietary supplements," he said. "At this point we have no reason to think we don't [have sufficient authority]."