Dear :
I am writing as a constituent to ask you to support three bills recently introduced to Congress by Ron Paul. These bills are the Health Freedom Act (HR 3395), the Freedom of Health Speech Act (HR 3394), and the Congressional Responsibility Act (HR 3396).
As a citizen of the United States, I believe it is my Constitutional right to have access to truthful health-related information and science. However, currently, the FDA severely restricts the health-related information that I am allowed to see. Presently, the FDA stops consumers from seeing an enormous quantity of truthful information concerning the effects of nutrients and foods on disease. The Health Freedom Act removes that barrier while preserving the government’s power to prosecute those who communicate falsehood. The First Amendment is meant to disarm the federal government of the power to impose a prior restraint on speech. Yet, the FDA has imposed a prior restraint for decades to the health detriment of the public.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is also restricting my Constitutional rights to access truthful, valid scientific research. The Freedom of Health Speech Act (HR 3394) prevents the FTC from taking action against any advertiser that communicates a health benefit for a product unless the FTC first establishes based on clear and convincing evidence that the statement made is false and that its communication causes harm to the public. Presently, the FTC reverses the Fifth Amendment burden of proof on the government when it charges advertisers with deceptive advertising and then demands that they prove their speech true or otherwise be deemed to have advertised deceptively. The Fifth Amendment requires that the FTC bear the burden of proving advertising deceptive. The First Amendment requires that the FTC not act against speech unless the speech is provably false.
Finally, the third bill introduced by Congressman Ron Paul, the Congressional Responsibility Act (HR 3396), will prohibit regulations from regulatory agencies from going into effect unless passed into law by Congress in the way in which the Constitution designates. Under Article I of the Constitution, our elected representatives are the ones given the exclusive power to make laws.
I urge you to vote in favor of all three of these acts, preserving my rights to obtain truthful information. Voting against these bills would be the equivalent of voting in favor of censorship—the exact opposite of what our Founding Fathers wanted to achieve when establishing the Constitution.
Thank you for taking the time to read and consider the points in this letter.
Sincerely,