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December 20, 2010 06:39 PM UTC

Bennet's Food Safety Act Approved

  • 33 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

In addition to the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell policy,” another lame-duck priority with local ties passed this weekend: the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, a bill that Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado has spent a lot of time on–our friends at the Washington Post report:

A bill that would overhaul the nation’s food-safety laws for the first time since the Great Depression came roaring back to life Sunday as Senate Democrats struck a deal with Republicans that helped overcome a technical mistake made three weeks ago and a filibuster threat that seemed likely to scuttle the legislation.

After a weekend of negotiations, tense strategy sessions and several premature predictions about the bill’s demise, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) reached a deal with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that the GOP would not filibuster.

Without notice and in a matter of minutes Sunday evening, the Senate approved the bill by unanimous consent, sending it to the House, where passage is expected. President Obama has said he would sign the legislation, which would give the government far-reaching authority to set and enforce safety standards for farmers and food processors.

Sen. Bennet released a statement on this legislation when it originally passed earlier this month:

As the father of three little girls, I want to ensure the food we put on our tables is safe for our kids to eat. Recent major food recalls, including the egg recall, highlight the need for this long overdue legislation to give Colorado parents some peace of mind knowing the food they put on their tables doesn’t put their families in harm’s way. After nearly a year of needless delays, we have finally moved forward on this bipartisan bill that will protect Colorado consumers and finally bring food safety in this country into the 21st century.

Colorado-based “Tea Party” organization Hear Us Now has a, um, dissenting view on food safety:

This Act (both Act itself and the act of voting for it) are an assault on freedom.

Apparently, that’s not a view that even most Republicans share: the bill passed the Senate originally on a vote of 73-25, and the vote to pass the slightly revised version yesterday was by unanimous consent. In fact, we’re not even sure what they mean here. Whose freedom? “Freedom” to sell contaminated food? For oppressed E.coli yearning to be free?

Of course it’s ridiculous, but that’s consistent with before the election–did you not notice then?

Evidently, a number of you did not.

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33 thoughts on “Bennet’s Food Safety Act Approved”

  1. This is your “Liberty Movement” in action. What do you think? Perhaps the next time YOU get food poisoning, Chuck, you can have your own “liberty movement.” Keep the Imodium handy!

  3. I’m pretty sure the amendment that exempted small family/organic farms from the heaviest paperwork and reporting requirements was included.  These local farms are proven to provide a safer product to begin with, and many would have been put out of business if they’d had to comply with the same rules/regs that the industrial operations will now have to.

  4. Let’s see.  The freedom to be poisoned and then, assuming survival, making the free market choice not to buy a dangerous food item again?  Guess in the absence of survival loved ones could exercise that freedom. Freedom to sell dangerous products until someone dies? Pretty sure most of us would just as soon do without those particular “freedoms”.  What’s next?  Freedom to send your 10 year old to work in a coal mine?

      1. That would put pressure on low income folks to give them a try. Freedom for the children of the less fortunate to be our lab rats doesn’t sit well with me either. Testing for safety definitely is a legitimate government function. Free market isn’t appropriate in every sphere.  

    3. to buy cars with brakes that don’t work and/or with exhaust that leaks into the passenger compartment.

      We’d each be smarter more demanding consumers on our second car purchase.

      Well, maybe not …

        1. When I was a college kid, I worked as a yard bird (mechanic’s assistant) for a construction company. We were installing sewers in Rockland County, New York.  The bedrock was basalt, not the kind of thing you can just rip up with a backhoe, so we were doing a lot of blasting.

          One day, the brakes went out on the dynamite truck.  Guess who they sent to pick it up and drive it back to the yard?

                1. Noun 1. yard bird – a military recruit who is assigned menial tasks

                  yardbird

                  military recruit, recruit – a recently enlisted soldier

                  2. yard bird – a person serving a sentence in a jail or prison

                  convict, con, yardbird, inmate

                  lifer – a prisoner serving a term of life imprisonment

                  captive, prisoner – a person who is confined; especially a prisoner of war

                  trusty – a convict who is considered trustworthy and granted special privileges

                  I forgot the prison connotation.

  5. since long before Michael Bennet was appointed.  Bennet’s willingness to work towards a cause of a fellow member of Colorado’s Democratic delegation is a good thing, but to give him top line credit to a bill he came late to is to misstate his role in the passage of the bill.

    1. And has been pushing for passage of some form of this bill since 2007.

      In July 2009, led by Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), the House of Representatives passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act (H.R. 2749) to update our food safety net. In November 2009, the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed its version of the bill, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510); but no floor action has yet been scheduled in the Senate…

      This bill has been in the works for a long time. Bennet and Tom Harkin deserve praise because they finally got this thing to the floor of the Senate, where it’s been languishing for over a year and a half.  

  6. Did he write the legislation?

    Was it his idea in the first place?

    Was he the one assigned by Reid to collect the last votes? Didn’t I just read that the bill passed by unanimous consent? Whew! Thank the Chef that we had Mike to spend a lot of time on this! Gotta wonder how WaPo managed to get through to dessert without even mentioning the junior senator from Colorado!

    BTW, what was that last minute technical glitch that almost scuttled this bill? (Ans: “The Senate version appeared to violate a constitutional provision that requires new taxes to originate in the House rather than the Senate.” (WaPo) Oops. Someone shoulda spent more time on it.

      1. I didn’t post a story vaguely giving Michael Bennett (as opposed, to say, anyone else) “credit” for doing something — besides “spending a lot of time on this” without specifying what his contribution was. I certainly am not claiming the least credit.

        What’s your point?

        My point is: what is the point of this story on the Front Page?

          1. Via Grand Junction?

            C’mon Ralphie, you can do better than this. Can’t you?

            Swill another one and change channels. I think Monday Night Football is on ESPN.

        2. Bennet specifically added 3 amendments to protect small and mid size farms and reduce regulatory burdens on both, which was a sticking point for a group of both Republicans and Democrats.

          Bennet also supported three other amendments with the goal of protecting small and mid-sized agriculture while building robust and practical food-safety protections. One amendment provides training and technical assistance to small and mid-sized farms, beginning and socially-disadvantaged farmers through the United States Department of Agriculture. Another amendment ensures fair rulemaking for small facilities by having the FDA consider risk when applying requirements and allowing the FDA to concentrate on high-risk facilities.

    2. It was hotly contested in the real vote on the bill weeks ago; this re-vote is a bit of a technicality based on the House having to vote first (due to the bill containing tax provisions). The Republicans allowing the re-passage by unanimous consent seems, like their sudden willingness to let judges be confirmed, a quid pro quo for the Dems caving on the tax bill.  

      1. Contributing the last T in his name to get the bill (t)hrough? How come no one wants to drop a hint?

        Maybe, on second thought, I should claim some credit. After all, I had a DREAM about carrying the bill to the floor, careful not to drop any pages (no, not those pages, the other kind) and making sure the hidden Santa clause remained intact.

        Praise Mike from Whom all Stuffing flows.

        Praise Him all Turkeys here below.

        Praise Him above on Wall Street, do!

        Praise Mikey, bought and paid for too.

        Yaaaaa Hoooooo!

  7. One of the great scandals of the Civil War was the half rotten meat canned for the troops.

    Then, fifty years later Sinclair Lewis wrote “The Jungle,” which led to the first federal controls of food safety.

    Yes, we are a lot better off, but those who would feed us foods contaminated with anything imaginable have their ancestors back at Gettysburg.  We can never let our guard down.  

  8. .

    and I wanted to get legislation to disadvantage small family farms,

    I think I would call it something like

    “Food Safety Act.”

    Who got DeGette to sponsor this ?   ConAgra ?  ADM ?  Carghill ?  

    Who was opposed ?  The small farmer.

    So Senator Bennet got some of the anti-small farm stuff toned down.  Good for him.

    .

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