The Natural Products Association (NPA), Washington, D.C., along with more than 40 other major trade associations and business groups from a wide range of other industries, sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, strongly urging them to oppose the inclusion of provisions that would dramatically expand the rulemaking and enforcement authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the financial reform bill “Restoring American Financial Stability Act” (S. 3217), currently pending in the Senate.

“Granting the Federal Trade Commission broad new authority across all but a few sectors of the American economy is not a necessary or relevant response to the causes of the recent recession,” the letter stated. “The financial troubles of the past year have not been laid at the FTC’s doorstep, and provisions to expand the Commission’s authority are out of place in legislation to reform the financial system.”

The letter was a unified message from a broad variety of industry segments, including retail, advertising, automotive, food and consumer electronics, which also says that “these FTC-related issues deserve their own due consideration and debate in the more appropriate context of an FTC reauthorization, as has been done in the past. We strongly urge the Senate to focus its current debate on restructuring the financial regulatory system, and not rush to make changes to the FTC that would have a fundamental impact on a broad segment of the business community.”

NPA also alerted its membership base of more than 10,000 retailers, manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors of natural products, including foods, dietary supplements and health/beauty aids of the potential threat to the way the industry interacts with regulatory agencies, as well as how it currently conducts business.

“We are asking our members to take action on this important issue by contacting their senators and urging them to focus on strengthening the stability of our economy, not regulating industries that had nothing to do with the financial crisis,” said John Gay, NPA’s CEO and executive director. “At a time when businesses are struggling to both survive and create new jobs, adding burdensome new regulations and ceding more authority over natural products businesses to the FTC is just what the economy does not need.”