WASHINGTON, D.C. — For the fifth time in about 15 years, Democrat lawmakers have proposed the creation of a single food safety agency with the power to issue recalls, conduct inspections and oversee labeling of products.

Proposed as the Food Safety Administration – with its leader appointed by and reporting to the president – the Safe Food Act of 2015 was filed in both chambers of Congress last week by Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.

In a conference call with reporters announcing the bill’s filing, Durbin said he realizes the bill may have long odds of winning approval from both Republican-controlled chambers, and said he would appeal to the GOP’s desire to decrease government spending. It’s also time for the issue of food safety to take center stage, he said.

“Why do you want to waste money?” Durbin said he plans to ask Republicans. “Why do you want to expose Americans and their families to unsafe foods and all the health consequences? There is a lot of duplication, a lot of waste, and we can save money and make America’s food supply even safer.”

Durbin and DeLauro, long a supporter of consolidating overlapping federal services as they relate to food safety, said current oversight is split up among 15 different agencies under the direction of the departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services and Commerce, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The lawmakers’ bill would consolidate the food-safety aspects of each agency into one department. Although the pair said they do not have estimates of how much money could be saved with such a move, they know the number would be significant.

DeLauro emphasized the main goal of the bill is to provide a safer national food system for consumers. “With a single agency, we believe our country will be able to have the ability to detect relatively minor problems before they become major outbreaks,” she wrote in an opinion piece published last week in The Hill.

During the conference call, she used eggs and how they are overseen as an example of how a single agency could eliminate duplication and improve safety for consumers. “One agency manages the health of hens, another oversees the feed that they eat, another sets egg quality standards but does not test them for salmonella,” DeLauro said. “While still in its shell, the egg is the responsibility of the Food and Drug Administration, but once it’s processed into an egg product, it becomes the responsibility of Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).”

Newly elected U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, a Republican from southern Illinois, said he understands the concept but that he would need to see specific information about the proposal before he would make any decision about the bill.

“As everyone knows, there are many important issues on the front burner these days, at home and abroad, so it’s hard to say at this point when this particular issue may come to the forefront,” he added.

The federal agencies that would be incorporated into one include: the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM); the resources and facilities of FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs that conduct inspections of food and feed facilities and imports; any resources of the FDA commissioner that support CFSAN, CVM and inspections; and the USDA’s FSIS, among others.