The Food Safety Enhancement Act (H.R. 2749) is on the schedule to come up for a vote either late tomorrow or on Wednesday. The bill will provide us with a major overhaul of the FDA, which regulates the safety of about 80% of our food supply. They will be voting under a suspension of the rules, which means:
To pass under suspension of the rules, a bill must receive the support of 2/3rds of the members voting, a quorum being present. A quorum for purposes of suspensions is 218. If all members are present and voting, we will need 290 YEAs to pass the bill.
I don't know why they are using these special rules, but I have heard from at least one source that we will probably have the votes to pass the bill. What is most important to us right now is to ask our legislators to please support the Farr-Kaptur amendment to the bill, so that the bill is as non-harmful as possible to small producers who do not pose much threat to our food system. |
