By Jon Taets

WASHINGTON – NACS has learned that one of our top legislative priorities, HR 772, the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, will be coming to a vote in the House of Representatives next week, likely on Tuesday, February 6. We need your help to make sure it gets another strong, bipartisan vote.

As you’ll recall, Congresswoman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-CA-5) and Congressman Tony Cardenas (D-CA-29) introduced the legislation last year, which would provide the flexibility our industry needs in order to effectively comply with the FDA’s pending menu labeling regulations. With those rules now scheduled to go into effect in May, time is truly of the essence to pass this important legislation.

While we had been hopeful that the new administration might make efforts to redraft the rule, they have indicated they do not intend to do so. Further, they have released new guidance in the past few months that failed to effectively address many of the core problems with the underlying rule. Without Congressional action, our industry will face the onerous regulatory burden of this rule while at the same time facing the very real threat of frivolous lawsuits based on minor, sometimes unavoidable, variations on caloric content of prepared foods. 

It is very easy for you to help ensure your voice is heard by your elected representatives. Simply follow this link to send your own letter to your member of Congress, encouraging them to vote YES on HR 772. We also provide suggestions for tweets and Facebook posts, which often help drive the conversation as well. Please take the two minutes it requires to add our voice to those from our industry and others calling for this common sense legislation to be passed into law.

Jon Taets is the NACS director of government relations and can be reached at jtaets@convenience.org.