Good News--Food Safety Bill Suddenly on Life Support!

[Guest guest]

Alliance for Natural Health USA A message from the Alliance for Natural

Health USA

Dear Arthur,

The Senate's controversial FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510)

now appears to be dead in the water!

As we reported to you yesterday, the Senate passed its version of the

Food Safety bill by a margin of 73 to 25, and sent it on to the House of

Representatives for approval. Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) had previously

agreed to accept the Senate's bill in place of the House's version, already

approved, so this approval was expected to be pro-forma.

But it turns out that Section 107 of the Senate bill contains a

revenue-raising (i.e., taxing) provision. And such a provision is

unconstitutional: " All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the

House of Representatives, " according to Article I, Section 7, of the

Constitution. Because the Senate violated the funding origination clause,

the House has implemented a procedure known as " blue slipping " to block the

bill, keeping it out of consideration and sending it back to the Senate.

The only possible " quick fix " would be a unanimous consent agreement

in the Senate to strike that revenue-raising provision from the bill-but

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has already stated that he will oppose, so unanimity

will be impossible. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is now faced with some

tough choices: spend a huge amount of time all over again to deal with this

(which is unlikely in a Lame Duck Congress, especially considering how

controversial the bill is); or do nothing, and allow the bill to die at the

end of this Congress. This will mean a new Food Safety Bill will be

introduced next year-but next year's Congress will be very different from

the current one, so we expect that the bill will look very different, and

could be much more favorable to the natural health community.

As always, we will keep you posted on any new developments.

Sincerely,

The Alliance for Natural Health USA

Follow ANH-USA on Twitter & Facebook

The Alliance for Natural Health USA

1350 Connecticut Ave NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20036

Ph: 800.230.2762

www.anh-usa.org

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