The Risk of Legislating IT

A Washington Post editorial on Tuesday called for the Food and Drug Administration to develop a system "to trace food and produce from the farm to the dinner table." Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., has called for such a system but has yet to get anything passed by the House. She introduced a bill last year that would require the FDA to develop a system to track meat products, but the bill hasn’t gone anywhere. She also tried, as the Post editorial points out, to get a provision in the 2008 Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act to require the agency to build a system to track food.

When Congress starts mandating technology solutions to problems it can create headaches for agencies. One needs to look no further than the U.S. VISIT system to know what not to do when writing technology solutions into law.