Post-Election View on Food Safety Legislation

Food Safety News today published two articles analyzing the prospects of food safety legislation in the upcoming lame-duck period and in the 112th Congress.

The minimal shift in the Senate means that Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) is still expected to try to pass S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, before the 111th Congress expires, one article says. Reid filed for cloture on the bill before the Senate broke for yesterday’s elections. The bill will likely need to clear the 60-vote procedural hurdle before a final vote can occur, because Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has a hold on the bill.

“Whether the bill makes it through a conference committee and to the President's desk before the new year is another question,” according to the article. The House passed its own food safety bill in July 2009. The two versions would need to be reconciled, and then each chamber would need to hold another vote on the conferenced version.

It’s a shame that the bill will come down to the wire, especially because the new, Republican-controlled House is unlikely to make food safety a high priority. The second Food Safety News article prognosticates that Rep. Joe Barton (TX), the likely chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (which has jurisdiction over FDA), and committee Republicans will not match their predecessors commitment to expanding FDA’s regulatory authority and improving the safety of the nation’s food supply:

Food safety enjoys bipartisan support, but had the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee and its effective Subcommittee on Investigations not been in Democratic Party hands during the past four years, food reform would not have gotten this far.  

Update (11/15/10): The Hill reports that the Senate may vote on the bill as soon as Wednesday, Nov. 17.

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