Recently the Federal Trade Commission had asked the US Congress for an increase in their annual budget of 13 million. Although you would not expect the agency to be involved in the issue of Childhood Obesity, they are and even touted their efforts to Congress as priority of the agency and reason for additional funding. In fact below is their testimony to Congress as listed in their report;

Evaluating Self-Regulation Efforts and Childhood Obesity.

The FTC and the Department of Health and Human Services hosted a workshop on marketing, self-regulation, and childhood obesity in July 2005. The workshop brought together representatives from food and beverage companies, medical and nutrition experts, representatives from media and entertainment companies, consumer groups, advertising specialists, and other key experts for an open discussion on industry self-regulation concerning the marketing of food and beverages to children, as well as initiatives to educate children and parents about nutrition.

This is of interest to me, because it seems that the Federal Trade Commission is completely over stepping its mission here? Sure such a workshop is a good idea. But the job of our Justice Department is to promote Truth, Justice and the American Way not to host Childhood Obesity workshops. We need to be clear to our government that we want them to do their jobs, not create new ways to spend our money. Consider this in 2006.