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THE PRESIDENT: The American people expect their government to work tirelessly to make
sure consumer products are safe. And that is precisely what my administration is doing.
I've called together key members of my Cabinet to review the procedures in place, the regulations
in place, the practices in place to make sure that our food supply remains the safest in
the world. The world is changing, and in order to make sure that we can continue to have
the confidence of our consumers, that we will continually review practices and procedures
to assure the American consumer.
And so I've asked Mike Leavitt, the Secretary of HHS, to lead a task group that will report
back to me in 60 days on a strategy that will review procedures in place and regulations
in place to make sure that they're meeting the needs of a changing world; that part of
our strategy is we work with our countries from which we import goods to make sure that
their procedures and practices will give us comfort. And, finally, we'll be working with
companies that import goods from around the world, to make sure that their practices meet
the high standards that we set for the United States.
This is a serious issue -- food safety and consumer safety is a serious issue. We take
it seriously and we spend a lot of time on it in this administration. So Michael, I want
to thank you very much for taking on this task force. It's important for the American
people to know their government is on top of the situation and constantly reviewing
procedures and practices. So thank you.