Posted on 11/30/2010 9:27:25 PM PST by Revel
A food safety bill that has burned up precious days of the Senate’s lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber because Democrats violated a constitutional provision requiring that tax provisions originate in the House.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at rollcall.com ...
Nah, the Senate dems will just come up with a way to grease the House dems so it’ll get passed. Watch and see.
The bill should have originated with the House. That’s means its dead.
Oops...
That seems to be true.
Do the Rats really care about the constitution when they have a lame-duck chance to forge another link in our chains? I really doubt it.
The Senate Democrats would need unanimous consent to put the bill up for another vote.
Not going to happen.
They have a crowded agenda and all the rest of the bills are “controversial.” If the GOP filibusters them, nothing is gonna happen next month.
Oh joy!
“Blue slipping”? I wish that my two senators would be getting pink slips.
This bill was written by lobbyists for big Agri-food companies.
Also, from a Dem: A hot mic left on during a Senate vote Tuesday morning on the Food Safety Act caught a Democratic senator complaining that the process of setting the agenda during the lame-duck session is “rigged.” “It’s all rigged. The whole conversation is rigged,” said Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. “The fact that we don’t get to a discussion before the break about what we’re going to do in the lame duck. It’s just rigged.” The remark was picked up live on C-SPAN 2...
Hot mic picks up discussion on Senate floor: ‘It’s all rigged’
Its an ancient custom that asserts the House’s prerogative to pass bills that raise money. The Senate usually has to defer to the House’s will on its jealously guarded constitutional power of the purse.
Progressives need to decide whether they really believe there’s an individual right to impose religious law on others, or whether that is in fact forbidden by the First Amendment (as one might have expected them to assert.) They can’t have it both ways....
Yup. Who has a hand in both parties’ pockets. That’s why it passed by such a wide margin today. This is the last bill in this Congress that will get bipartisan support.
And since Tom Coburn wants changes to it, it means its effectively DOA for this year.
We can only pray that our food freedom will be protected from Monsanto’s insatiable greed, it does not matter what the mechanism might be.
Thank Harry Reid’s stupidity, the House Democrats’ pride and Tom Coburn’s recalcitrance for its unexpected internment.
touched off a power struggle with members of their own party in the House
********************
nothing like watching a pack of Sith Lords have at each other
Dingy Harry trod on the House’s power to raise money. Apparently, the Senate Democrats were in such a hurry to pass the bill that they forgot to strip out the funding provisions from it.
The Blue Dogs will cooperate with the conservatives in the House, so maybe it can be overturned....that would be nice.
Really? I thought the House was prepared to pass the Senate version and get it to Obama for signature ASAP?
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