July 18, 2007

2:50 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: The American people expect their government to work tirelessly to make sure consumer products are safe. And that is precisely¹ 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 remains² 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.

END 2:52 P.M. EDT