Yesterday, the Health Subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing (“Policies to Protect Our Communities from Illicit Drug Threats”) that covered the Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act (H.R. 2715). At the hearing, Representative Troy Carter (D-LA), one of the original sponsors of the bipartisan bill along with Representative Clay Higgins (R-LA), explained the need for the legislation.
In his comments, Congressman Carter observed that there was broad support for the Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act, including from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In particular, Representative Carter noted that the FDA requested authority to require the destruction of imported products that pose a significant public health risk as part of its fiscal year 2026 “Legislative Proposals” and specifically cited examples of efforts by Chinese seafood importers to bring food contaminated with carcinogenic unapproved animal drugs into the United States even after the FDA had refused entry to the merchandise at another port. As noted on the agency’s website, “FDA will also continue to seek additional authority from Congress to require the destruction of imported seafood and other imported FDA-regulated products that pose a significant public health risk, as outlined in FDA’s 2026 Legislative Proposals.”
Representative Carter referenced a February 23, 2026 letter sent to the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from a broad group of sixteen American seafood producing groups supporting the legislation, including the Southern Shrimp Alliance, the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, the Louisiana Crawfish Processors Alliance, the Louisiana Farm Bureau Crawfish Advisory Committee, the Southeastern Fisheries Association, the North American Marine Alliance, the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, the Oregon Trawl Commission, the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association, the Hawaii Longline Association, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, the Gulf of America Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, the North Carolina Fisheries Association, the Texas Shrimp Association, the Port Arthur Area Shrimpers Association, and Apostleship of the Sea of the United States of America.
The Congressman also cited a September 4, 2025 letter led by the Partnership for Safe Medicines and joined by the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP), The International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition, the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, the National Association of State Controlled Substances Authorities, the National Consumers League, Rx-360, the Institute for Safe Medicine Practices, and ECRI expressing strong support for the FDA’s request for authority to require destruction of imported goods that posed significant public health risks.
During Thursday’s hearing, in response to a question from Congressman Carter, Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, Senior Scientist and Gillings Innovation Fellow at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, reported that “port shopping . . . is a really common thing” and provided the example of muffins sold at a nationwide coffee shop chain that were found by the FDA at a port of entry to have contained plastic and were refused, only to enter the United States somewhere else and still end up on shelves at the chain.
The Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act currently has ten co-sponsors in the House. In addition to Representatives Carter and Higgins, the bill is co-sponsored by Representatives Randy Weber (R-TX), Troy Nehls (R-TX), Julia Letlow (R-LA), Gregory Murphy (R-NC), Gregory Steube (R-FL), Mike Haridopolos (R-FL), Mike Ezell (R-MS), and Gus Bilirakis (R-FL). The Senate version of the bill (S. 3213), introduced by Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), has been co-sponsored by Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS).
“The U.S. shrimp industry is incredibly grateful for the continued bipartisan leadership of Congressman Troy Carter and Congressman Clay Higgins to get contaminated foreign shrimp out of our market,” said Blake Price, Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “The Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act has broad support because Americans of all stripes want to see the Food and Drug Administration have the authority to require the destruction of products that pose significant public health risks.”
Read the February 23, 2026 letter in support of the Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act from a coalition of seafood industry groups and advocates here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Seafood-Coalition-Letter-on-Destruction-of-Hazardous-Imports-Act-Feb-23-2026-1.pdf