Posted on 12/17/2010 12:43:12 PM PST by Uncledave
The food safety bill is almost certainly dead. Why? Don’t blame it on GOP obstructionism — while Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) robustly opposed the bill, citing its unpaid-for $1.4 billion price tag, and its new (and ineffective, he argued) regulations, that didn’t stop plenty of Republican senators from backing it.
Instead, it’s because Senate majority leader Harry Reid forgot about that pesky constitutional requirement that all taxes originate in the House.
Here’s the background: The Food Safety bill passed the House in 2009. It had stalled in the Senate, to many Democrats’ dismay, and so Reid spent valuable days during the lame-duck session on debating and voting on the bill. In the end, the bill passed by a comfortable margin, 73 to 25. The White House issued a jubilant statement and urged the House to act quickly to reconcile the Senate and House versions.
And then they discovered that because the Senate bill raised revenues it was unconstitutional. So, the solution became to pass a constitutional food safety bill — as part of the omnibus spending bill.
Since that failed last night, it looks like the food safety legislation is dead. While Democrats are hoping to include the legislation in the continuing resolution, a GOP senate aide told The Hill that won’t be happening.
Thank you, God.
Harry Reid is just as stupid as we thought he was.
This bill & all of it’s tentacles has to die a fast & permanent death!!!!
This was a very scary bill that would have squished private gardeners and folks who sell in farmers markets. May it never rise from the ashes.
I thought the purpose of the bill was to enable more inspection of people like the industrial sized growers involved in the recent infected lettuce and similar toxic problems.
Dang it, I spent HOURS planning my black-market strategy to deal with this bill.
You mean Obama, the great and brilliant "Constitutional law professor", didn't ALREADY KNOW that?
Psssst. Hey, buddy, c’mere. Yeah, you! c’mere. Wanna’ buy some squash? How ‘bout a peck of green beans?
That is what it probably said in bold face caps in labeling the bill. Like most other bills, it is the fine print or sloppily(?) worded regulations where the Devil in the detail lurks.
The idiot, corrupt and stupid Republican bastards that voted *for* this monstrous *food safety* act, need to be remembered.
I do not have a list of those Senators. Anyone?
The bill gave the FDA control of all forms of food production, distribution or storage in the US.
All entities covered would be required to be licensed.
Considering the folks who produced this bill I cannot imagine its purpose was limited to food safety.
A lot of red state Republiks voted for this.
Lets face it nothing is safe until congress is out of town
I hope we can squash him like a bug one day. He is a total scum.
Thank God. That bill was a nightmare.
Can we please make a concerted effort to pressure our reps to convene a special committee to look into the prosecution these criminals
Dismembered, more like it.
In the sense of being removed from their membership, of course.
I don’t attribute what was in this bill to sloppiness. They knew exactly what they were going for.
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