Reid Contaminates Food Safety Bill

www.Heritage.org  12-1-10

Less than 24 hours after declaring victory in his quest to vastly expand the regulatory powers of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—for the children—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D–NV) is mired in a procedural misstep that may well kill the legislation.

Despite the time constraints of the waning session, Reid focused Senate attention on passage of S. 510, the Food Safety Protection Act, which was approved on Tuesday by a vote of 73–25.

Spanning some 150 pages, the act authorizes the FDA to dictate how farmers grow fruits and vegetables, including rules governing soil, water, hygiene, packing, temperatures, and even what animals may roam which fields and when. It would also increase inspections of food “facilities” and tax them to do so.

That’s the rub. The House version of the bill does not contain the “revenue raiser” in the Senate bill. But the Constitution calls for all tax provisions to originate in the House. Consequently, House Democrats are threatening to block the bill, which would force Reid to waste even more time on a legislative fix or simply admit defeat.

This is not the first time Reid has made a revenue-raising blunder. According to a report in Roll Call, his efforts to pass a tourism promotion bill was also stymied earlier this year because the Senate version likewise contained tax increases that did not originate in the House.

Consumers need not fear defeat of the legislation. Notwithstanding alarmist claims, the nation’s food supply has never been safer. Incident rates of food-borne illness have actually been declining for more than a decade, in spite of higher consumption of the raw foods that are most often associated with outbreaks of food-borne illness. The proposed regulations are nothing but an ineffective answer to a manufactured crisis.

More: http://blog.heritage.org/?p=47508

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Last Chance To Kill Food Bill

Greetings Patriots,

The House Ways and Means Committee might be the last chance we have to kill the Food Bill, passed by the Senate Tuesday morning.

According to the Constitution all bills generating revenue (taxes) have to originate out of the House of Representatives. Sec. 107 includes taxes (revenue raising) and originated in the Senate, NOT the House.

See Roll Call article: House May Block Food Safety Bill Over Senate Error

Below is the link to the members of the Ways and Means Committee:  http://waysandmeans.house.gov/singlepages.aspx?newsid=10462

If one of these members is from your state, make calls asking them to support the "Blue Slip" procedure to be invoked concerning S510. This might be our last chance to kill this bill. If it is invoked, the Senate will most likely not have enough time to redo the bill, before the end of the lame duck session. Those of you from Iowa, Tom Harkin is the committee chairman, he really needs to hear from all of you and everyone else in Iowa.

You can link to their website by going to the below link: http://www.house.gov/

Your Tea Party Patriots National Coordinator Team,

Debbie Dooley, Jenny Beth Martin, Mark Meckler, Sally Oljar, Diana Reimer, and Dawn Wildman

www.TEAPartyPatriots.com

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MORE: National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association