MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) has agreed to co-sponsor legislation intended to protect the Gulf Coast raw oyster industry from federal regulations that would effectively prohibit the sale of warm water oysters.
Cochran is supporting the Gulf Oyster Industry Jobs Protection Act (S.2752), which was introduced by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) following an attempt by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban the sale of oysters harvested from the Gulf of Mexico during warm weather months.
This legislation serves as a check on the attempts by the Food and Drug Administration to impose rules that could unnecessarily harm the Gulf Coast oyster industry. The agency would have to show that its proposed regulations would do more good than harm, not only for the industry but for the people who enjoy eating raw oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, Cochran said.
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