From Wisconsin Capitol Watch…
Senator Harry Reid has forced a vote on Senate Bill 510, the Food Safety Act. The vote invoked cloture, which limited debate to 30 hours total. Twenty four Republicans voted with Reid. All Reid needed was three-fifths (60 votes), but 24 Republicans already forgot how Americans voted November 2 and sided with liberal Reid.
S 510 is a step toward increasing the size and cost of government at the expense of American farmers-big and small. The so-called Food Safety Act empowers the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate every part of every farming operation in the nation.
The cost of compliance and record keeping to farmers cannot even be estimated. Even the farm wife who sells jam, preserves and apple butter at a Christmas bizarre will have to be permitted by the FDA. The cost to the government-all tax payers-will be $1.6 billion over the next five years, according to Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). It also requires that a minimum of 4,000 staff members be added in 2011 and 5,000 by 2015 to implement the Act. So much for the call to reduce the federal government workforce.
S 510 greatly expands federal government’s jurisdiction over intrastate commerce, meaning it threatens individual states rights to regulate food produced within their jurisdiction and gives the federal government total control. It imposes a one-size-fits-all regulation approach making it more difficult for small farms and food processors to remain in business.
S 510 was expanded by 77 pages when the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee released the Manager’s Package last August 12th.
Reasons to Oppose the Manager’s Package of S 510:
1. Gives dangerously broad regulatory and discretionary power to the FDA over the entire food supply without proper checks and balances to avoid abuse of power;
2. Will impose a one-size-fits-all regulation approach on thousands of farmers, producers, processors, and suppliers who sell fresh products to millions of Americans;
3. Limits our own US domestic laws and ensures international agreements or treaties established by the World Trade Organizations will control;
4. Will preclude the public’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food nature makes.
Action to take:
Call Feingold and Kohl and tell them to vote “NO” on S 510, the Food and Safety Act.
Feingold, Russell D. – (D – WI) Class III
506 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5323
Web Form: feingold.senate.gov/contact_opinion.htm
Kohl, Herb – (D – WI) Class I
330 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5653
Web Form: kohl.senate.gov/contact.cfm
