Senate Food Fight
The controversial so-called Food Safety Bill that Senate Democrats hustled through a lame-duck session this week, with help from none other than North Carolina’s own alleged Republican Richard Burr, looks to be headed back into the chamber freezer.
In the Senate’s haste to keep us lowly, ignorant food consumers safe from ourselves, the powers that be apparently have trampled all over the Constitution, violating that pesky little provision requiring any bill that raises taxes to originate in the House. This from Roll Call:
By pre-empting the House’s tax-writing authority, Senate Democrats appear to have touched off a power struggle with members of their own party in the House. The Senate passed the bill Tuesday, sending it to the House, but House Democrats are expected to use a procedure known as “blue slipping” to block the bill, according to House and Senate GOP aides.
The debacle could prove to be a major embarrassment for Senate Democrats, who sought Tuesday to make the relatively unknown bill a major political issue by sending out numerous news releases trumpeting its passage.
Section 107 of the bill includes a set of fees that are classified as revenue raisers, which are technically taxes under the Constitution. According to a House GOP leadership aide, that section has ruffled the feathers of Ways and Means Committee Democrats, who are expected to use the blue slip process to block completion of the bill.
Roll Call predicts two likely outcomes from the last-minute food fight: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could just drop the bill like a hot potato and let the next session pick it up, or he could push the issue after the House passes a new version of the bill. The later might prove problematic, as it would require unanimous consent agreement and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is already on record as balking at such a deal.
Either way, it’s not too late to once again start dialing up Burr (202-224-3154) and strongly encourage him to oppose this fowl piece of government overreach.
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