Food Safety Language Tacked to CR to Answer Constitutional Questions

By Ellyn Ferguson, CQ Staff

A Senate food safety bill that stalled in the House after running afoul of a constitutional requirement was included in the fiscal 2011 spending bill the House passed Wednesday.

House leaders said they could not take up the Senate-passed food safety measure (S 510) on its own because the Constitution requires that bills to raise revenue originate in the House. The Senate bill includes permitting, inspection and registration fees. The continuing resolution offered a vehicle to return the measure to the Senate.

“We view this as a welcome development and hope this will help get the food safety bill passed,” said Chris Waldrop, the Consumer Federation of America’s food policy director.

During House debate, the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Joe L. Barton of Texas, said the food safety bill should go to conference to reconcile differences between the Senate version and the House-passed companion (HR 2749). Barton supported the House bill, but dislikes some provisions of the Senate version.

But the House bill’s sponsor, John D. Dingell, D-Mich., said the Senate bill did not drastically diverge from what the House had passed, and he urged colleagues to pass the measure.

“We’ll get it back here and we’ll take care of it,” said Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. He added that a Senate omnibus spending bill would also include the food safety language.

Overall, the bill would strengthen Food and Drug Administration oversight and inspections of food safety and give the agency the power to order mandatory recalls.

In addition to food safety, the House spending measure (HR 3082) would set discretionary spending for the Agriculture Department, FDA and related agencies at $22.6 billion, $724 million below the fiscal 2010 level. The bill would provide the FDA with more funding to increase inspections of food, medical devices and drugs, and would boost funding for nutrition assistance programs and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which assumes new authority to regulate over-the-counter derivatives.

CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – AGRICULTURE
Dec. 8, 2010 – 2:25 p.m.