Senate Screws Up on Food Safety Legislation

Update 12/21/10: It took more than a year-and-a-half of pushing, but on December 21, 2010, Congress finally passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510). The move came after more than 1,800 Change.org members signed our petition asking Congress to pass the food safety reform bill. You can read more about this victory here.

Earlier this week, the Senate voted in favor of the historic FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510), a landmark bill that aims to seal up the gaping holes in America's food safety system. Contamination-conscious consumers breathed a sigh of relief, because it appeared that the bill was finally moving again and on the road to passage. But before you put on your party hat, better put it back down: The Senate totally mucked things up.

Apparently the bill the senators agreed upon and passed onto the House violates Constitutional law. As Food Safety News reports, the senators' version of the bill includes "a provision that would allow the FDA to impose fees on importers and on companies whose food is recalled because of contamination." Sounds reasonable, except it's illegal: As Grist's Tom Philpott writes, all revenue-raising measures like this one must originate in the House. Guess the Senate forgot about that minor, little, Constitutional law.

Normally a hiccup like this wouldn't be a huge deal. The bill would get sent back to the Senate, where lawmakers could remove the offensive revenue bit, and then send it on back to the House. The problem is that there may not be enough time to actually accomplish this task. The lame-duck session leaves members of Congress with totally packed schedules and many proposed measures to review. This week may have been S. 510's last shot at passage.

The situation is further complicated by how controversial S. 510 is as a bill. Some folks argue that food safety reform is too expensive and gives too much power to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency that's already pretty ineffective. Sen. Tom Coburn, for example, has loudly expressed his discontent over the proposed overhaul. A situation like this just might give these dissenting parties enough time to rally more opposition to the bill.

It's a real shame that a logistical oversight like this could completely scrap what was the result of months and months of hard work and campaigning. S. 510 would take large-scale producers to task for their lack of sanitation and oversight, requiring that all major manufacturers and processors implement safety measures. It would also give the FDA the power to issue mandatory recalls — right now, if a contamination outbreak occurs, the FDA can only ask companies if they will issue a voluntary recall. It's a crippled system that puts consumers' health in serious jeopardy.

The fight isn't over yet, and there's still a chance that the Senate and House can come together and hammer out solid food safety reform legislation. Keep the pressure on by signing our petition asking Congress to pass S. 510.

Photo credit: smith via Flickr