Michigan legislative action thread
Posted on 03/19/2015 10:21:04 AM PDT by cripplecreek
LANSING -- The Michigan Senate passed a bill allowing up to three fundraising bake sales in public schools per week, providing a way around federal health standards that banned them. brownies.
State Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton Township, introduced Senate Bill 109, which passed 36-1, with one senator excused from voting. Colbeck said Boy Scouts in his district asked him why the state banned bake sales in schools. After looking into it further, he realized Michigan had not approved exemptions from the federal Smart Snacks in School standards that disqualify most bake sale items.
"(This bill is a) common sense change that would balance the need for Boy and Girl Scout troops to raise money, with the federal government's need to regulate food for our youth," Colbeck said.
Similar legislation has been introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives. Colbeck's bill will now be sent to the House to be considered. If passed there, the bill will be sent to Gov. Rick Snyder for final consideration.
Federal law allows states to pass exemptions to determine if a set amount of in-school food fundraisers will be allowed. Michigan is not one of the 21 states that have so far created exemptions, meaning it is beholden to the U.S. Department of Agriculture program's standards.
The Smart Snacks in School program began in the 2014-15 school year and requires all foods sold at school during the school day to meet nutrition standards.
Among the standards is ensuring a food is a "whole grain-rich" grain product or requiring the first ingredient listed is a fruit, vegetable, dairy product or protein food. The food must also contain one-fourth cup of fruit/vegetable, contain 10 percent of potassium, calcium, vitamin D or dietary fiber.
Snack items must be less than or equal to 200 calories and entrée items must be less than or equal to 350 calories, according to the federal standards.
For fundraisers, food items that meet nutrition requirements can be sold but foods that do not meet standards cannot be sold. The standards do not apply to fundraisers held during non-school hours, on weekends and off of school campuses.
State Sen. Vincent Gregory, D-Southfield, was the lone "no" vote against the bake sale bill. He said he was concerned about the amount of bake sales allowed per week, believing three is too many.
"To me, if it's three times a year or maybe even once a month (that's fine), but three times a week, that kind of defeats the purpose of Healthy Kids Michigan," Gregory said.
"We're moving toward a healthy society. Some kids are taking out all the pop, but we're saying have a bake sale three times a week. That seems excessive," he added.
Declare brownies a fruit and chocolate chip cookies a vegetable. Heck, lets go the full boat and be patriotic and make them the official state fruit and vegetables.
The funny thing is that liberals are squealing about it not because they care about the health of kids but because they’re angry that someone dares push back against federal overreach.
Representative Colbeck, please reference the Constitution and tell me exactly where it says that the federal government has the NEED or even the RIGHT to regulate food for our youth. This is the problem with the GOP today. To many have lost sight of and have abandoned the conservative principle of limited government.
He hasn’t forgotten it. He just didn’t state it that way in the article.
He’s got a firm history of opposing the feds overstepping their boundaries. In fact, the national GOP would be wise to pay attention to his ideas on how to eliminate Obamacare and drive health care costs down.
”… providing a way around federal health standards that banned them."
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument
What is Michigan teaching its children about the Constitution? It’s certainly not the federal government’s constitutionally limited powers as the Founding States had intended for those powers to be understood.
More specifically, regardless what FDR’s thug justices wanted everybody to believe about the scope of Congress’s Commerce Clause powers, those activist justices wrongly ignored that the Court had previously clarified that the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to either regulate, tax and spend for intrastate commerce, or to dictate policy for intrastate schools.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphases added].” —Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
In fact, regardless that federal Democrats, RINOs, activist judges and indoctrinated attorneys will argue that if the Constitution doesn’t say that the feds can’t do something then they can do it, the Supreme Court has addressed that foolish idea too. Politically correct interpretations of the Constitution's Supremacy Clause (5.2) aside, the Court has clarified in broad terms that powers not delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific powers to regulate intrastate commerce and intrastate school policy in this case, are prohibited to the feds.
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
I was wondering where in the US Constitution the federal government was given the authority to wage war on childhood obesity? But, I think I found what prevents it in Article F, Section U, Subsection C, Paragraph K, sentences Y, O, and U.
LOL, they did it while the First Lady of Food was out of the country
Don’t tell Mooch but Michigan has a vast underground salt bunker (mine) and we grow lots of sugar beets.
We’re like the Taliban of eating whatever the hell we want.
I’ll bet Smart Snacks are as good as Smart Cars.
DEFUND/DISMANTLE the Department of Education and the Department of Agriculture. Legislatures state and federal can be part time.
OUT-OF-CONTROL executive branch BUMP!
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