mr. chairman , i rise today to express my concern that we are again dealing with a notion that there is a crisis in our courts with obesity lawsuits . 
h.r. 554 , the so-called `` personal responsibility in food consumption act '' is a measure that seeks to give federal immunity to food manufacturers , sellers , and advertisers for obesity-related claims . 
the reality is there is only one such pending suit in the entire country , so i am hard pressed to see why we need to take up this measure today , especially since there are so many other important issues we need to address . 
i do not think it is the role of the united states congress to intervene in every individual and private issue in america . 
our nation is plagued by childhood obesity and heart disease , and we should be looking into real solutions to this problem , we should not be focusing our efforts on getting rid of one lawsuit currently pending against a fast food outlet . 
furthermore , the language in h.r. 554 is so broad it would cut off legitimate claims against the food industry , even where the industry acted to deceive the public and even where it violated state or federal law . 
for instance , those in the food industry who fraudulently or deceptively market or sell low-fat products that are not really low-fat should be held accountable but this measure would let them off the hook . 
lawsuits aimed at unscrupulous tactics help to change the behavior of the bad actors in the industry we should allow our legal system to process these legitimate cases . 
mr. chairman , our legal system has multiple procedural safeguards to ensure that frivolous litigation is thrown out and that meritorious claims are preserved . 
that is why i oppose h.r. 554 . 
