Editor’s takeaways from NPA congressional fly-in day

For the second year in a row, I flew to Washington, D.C., for a congressional lobby day hosted by the Natural Products Association (NPA).

This year’s event was held on May 22, and below are a few of my ruminations.

NPA’s lobbyists have deep experience on the Hill and offered valuable tips on respecting and communicating with legislative staff. I spent time chitchatting with lobbyists Frank McCarthy and Steve Northrup. McCarthy’s a former sports journalist so I liked him immediately, and Northrup (who I’ve bumped into several times in recent years) is salt of the earth.

NPA’s chairman of the board, Mark LeDoux, said he’s been lobbying for half a century, and that’s evident when you watch him in action. Having the chance to sit in on a few meetings with LeDoux and fellow NPA board member Jim Emme, I was impressed with their ability to stay on message and deliver a crisp narrative.

The experience left me wondering, who can — and will — step up as the next generation of industry leaders to command a room like Emme and LeDoux do with such easy and mastery.

I’ve mostly been a silent participant in NPA-hosted meetings during its lobby days, but in my firsthand observations, there are two types of staff members: Those who know a lot about the Food and Drug Administration and dietary supplements and the rest who are dealing with America’s issues from A to Z. As I noted in the accompanying video below on this page, the staff members with the committees of jurisdiction over FDA fall into the former category.

NPA members delivered various messages this year to lawmakers and their staff. The one that resonated the most with me was perhaps the simplest and yet the most complicated: The Food and Drug Administration must fully exercise its powers to enforce the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), and unless and until it does so, it has no business requesting additional authorities.

Regardless of how you feel about FDA’s legislative proposal for mandatory product listing (MPL), let’s consider this question. What objective criteria can the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and House Committee on Energy and Commerce apply to assess the extent to which FDA is efficiently using its current authorities under DSHEA?

I’ll leave the answer to that question for another day and close with this, an extension of gratitude to NPA’s staff and board members for the invitation and pleasant experience while visiting the swamp.