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 .  