House passes far-reaching food safety bill

AP via Breitbart ^ | July 31, 2009 | MARY CLARE JALONICK

[Jet Jaguar]

The House has passed a far-reaching food safety bill requiring more government inspections and imposing new penalties on those who violate the law, reacting strongly to an outbreak of salmonella in peanuts that killed at least nine people.

The legislation would require greater oversight of food manufacturers and give the Food and Drug Administration new authority to order recalls. It also would require the FDA to develop a system for better tracing food-borne illnesses. Food companies would be required to create detailed food safety plans.

President Barack Obama praised the bill soon after it was passed, calling it "a major step forward in modernizing our food safety system."

Democrats scrambled to put the legislation back on the House floor Thursday under a rule that required a simple majority to pass. The vote was 283-142.

Supporters said the legislation would help the FDA change its focus from a reactive to a more preventive approach in keeping the nation's food safe.

"Americans are dying because the Food and Drug Administration doesn't have the authority to protect them," said Michigan Rep. John Dingell, the bill's sponsor and a long-serving Democrat who has been pushing for tougher standards for more than a decade.

A similar bill sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., has not yet seen action in the Senate.

The legislation gained new momentum in the wake of one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history, stemming from salmonella in peanuts that killed nine people, sickened hundreds of others and was linked to shoddy practices at a peanut company in Georgia. Other recent outbreaks include contaminated spinach in 2006 and salmonella in peppers last year. The government estimates that 76 million people each year are sickened by food-borne illness, hundreds of thousands are hospitalized and around 5,000 die.

[2ndClassCitizen]

The electeds have become, for the most part, enemies of the people.

They have lots of company in the radical enclaves of the democratic party. There will never be reconciliation between those radicals and people who analyze what they have done.

[BagCamAddict]

9 died from peanuts so we pass this law.
Over 250 have already died from H1N1 Flu (aka Swine Flu) but we couldn’t close the borders.

5000 die annually from food-related illness.
An estimated 50,000 or more will die this year from H1N1, but we couldn’t close the borders.**

How many die annually from Smoking?
How many die annually from Auto Accidents?

**The current CDC-reported death rate is over 0.5 percent, but I used a conservative rate of 0.5 percent, and a conservative estimate of 10 million people in the US contracting H1N1 during Flu season. In a normal flu season, between 10-30 million people contract the flu.

[Cheap_Hessian]

Here are the Republicans who voted Aye

DE-0 Castle, Michael [R]
FL-4 Crenshaw, Ander [R]
FL-5 Brown-Waite, Virginia [R]
FL-9 Bilirakis, Gus [R]
FL-10 Young, C. W. [R]
FL-12 Putnam, Adam [R]
FL-13 Buchanan, Vern [R]
FL-18 Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana [R]
FL-21 Diaz-Balart, Lincoln [R]
FL-25 Diaz-Balart, Mario [R]
GA-9 Deal, Nathan [R]
GA-11 Gingrey, John [R]
IL-6 Roskam, Peter [R]
IL-10 Kirk, Mark [R]
IL-13 Biggert, Judy [R]
IL-19 Shimkus, John [R]
IN-4 Buyer, Stephen [R]
KY-1 Whitfield, Edward [R]
KY-2 Guthrie, Brett [R]
KY-5 Rogers, Harold [R]
LA-1 Scalise, Steve [R]
LA-2 Cao, Anh [R]
MI-3 Ehlers, Vernon [R]
MI-4 Camp, David [R]
MI-6 Upton, Frederick [R]
MI-8 Rogers, Michael [R]
MI-10 Miller, Candice [R]
MI-11 McCotter, Thaddeus [R]
MN-2 Kline, John [R]
MN-3 Paulsen, Erik [R]
MN-6 Bachmann, Michele [R]
NE-1 Fortenberry, Jeffrey [R]
NE-2 Terry, Lee [R]
NJ-2 LoBiondo, Frank [R]
NJ-4 Smith, Christopher [R]
NJ-7 Lance, Leonard [R]
NJ-11 Frelinghuysen, Rodney [R]
NY-3 King, Peter [R]
NY-23 McHugh, John [R]
NY-26 Lee, Christopher [R]
OH-3 Turner, Michael [R]
OH-12 Tiberi, Patrick [R]
OH-14 LaTourette, Steven [R]
OR-2 Walden, Greg [R]
PA-15 Dent, Charles [R]
PA-18 Murphy, Tim [R]
PA-19 Platts, Todd [R]
TX-6 Barton, Joe [R]
TX-26 Burgess, Michael [R]
VA-10 Wolf, Frank [R]
WA-8 Reichert, Dave [R]
WV-2 Capito, Shelley [R]

[stickandrudder]

How did your Rep vote?
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2009-680 Mine voted against it, I will call and thank him today

[chuck_the_tv_out]

"It's incredible how stupid Americans have become,"

Don't believe the hype. We saw all this in the Clinton years. People start thinking "the people support this", and they DON'T. Polls are manipulated, and control is maintained by giving the IMPRESSION that people support what is going on.

Just like dressing Obama in an opposing team's shirt to explain the boos.

Don't believe the hype.

[voicereason]

Bump

[Cheap_Hessian]

My rep, Lee Terry NE 2, voted for it... I will call too, but I won’t be thanking him.

[NewHampshireDuo]

While I disagree strongly with my Dem Rep’s (Pingree, ME-1) positions, she hit it right with this one. I did send her a note thanking her for her vote. (I fax her frequently - this is so far the only favorable fax.)

[traderrob6]

As a food broker my life just got exponentially tougher.

[Oatka]

You know, large agri-businesses are in bed with the government as they can absorb the costs of regulations and pass those costs on, while destroying their local competition; in turn the government gets a more dependent populace.

IMO, this bill was sponsored by Agri-Business as a[nother] effort to suppress competition. Unless some rules have been changed, large-scale cattle operations only have to register/tag the herd AS A GROUP while smaller ranchers have to do that to EACH ANIMAL. There was even talk that the law is so loosely written as to give the govt control over your garden, let alone farmers' markets.

[Billg64]

absolutely, even with a private garden, if an official is “suspicious” of a contamination in your garden, it can be “quarantined” or destroyed

[Cheap_Hessian]

You nailed it. That is exactly what this is. Big business using government to kill smaller competition.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I’m not old enough to remember Victory Gardens, but man that must have been a time when even a Rat had some horse sense left.

[TennTuxedo]

Government control of the food supply.

[kara2008]

"We are a nation built on the strength of individual initiative. But there are certain things that we can't do on our own. There are certain things that only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat …are safe and don't cause us harm."

- Barack Obama, March 14, 2009

Says the forked-tongued-fascist-commie-liar-in-chief.

This bill is a travesty. It effectively gives government control over our food supply in the name of "food safety."

USSA is going to hell in a hand basket at lightning speed.

[Lazamataz]

“We are a nation built on the strength of individual initiative. But there are certain things that we can’t do on our own. There are certain things that only a government can do. And one of those things is eating.” — Brraaaaak Obama.

[savedbygrace]

As you begin to get a handle on all the effects you’ll see from this, would you summarize and post them to this or another FR thread, please? And please ping me, because I’m very interested to know.

[Datahead]

Control the food, control the people. Not enough fingers in the dike people.

[traderrob6]

Let’s not spread disinformation. Do you have a link to that quote?

[Madam Theophilus]

I’ve read that it is going to put thousands of small organic farms out of business due to the requirements of sterile soil and over zealous standards. It will also affect local farmers markets.