| Food safety ain't happening before November 2. That's the news. Several times this year, I've gotten frantic emails that the bill - S.510 - was coming to the Senate floor "any day" or "next week" or "this work period" and urgent action was needed. Then, each time, the Senate pushed the bill further back on its schedule. This bill, by the way, has already passed the House. It passed the House well over a year ago.
This week, the emails ramped up to a fever pitch. It was expected. What with the recent egg recall, food safety was in the news. Passing the food safety bill was an obvious next step. We knew the Senate was hoping to bring the bill to the floor after the August recess, so it made sense when the emails started coming in, suggesting that the bill was surely up for a vote at any moment.
Then Tom Coburn (R-OK) decided to block the bill. He says it "adds to the deficit and expands the power of an already troubled agency." As of a day ago, there was still hope:
"We hope within the next 24 hours [Coburn] will say yes," Reid said. "That's where we are."
But now this:
Harry Reid: I talked to Sen. [McConnell] ... he thinks that something should be done. But - we spent a whole Congress on this and at the last minute, he comes in and likely we're not going to be able to get [food safety] done before... elections. What a sad thing for our country. People are dying as a result of these problems with food. And it's just a shame that we can't get this done... We have almost 400 matters that have passed in the House of Representatives and we can't deal with them here because the Republicans say no. That's not the way to do business. In years past these things would have gone through really easily.
UPDATE: Coburn's a doctor. Wonder if he remembers ever promising "I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure." You know... the Hippocratic oath... |
