| First off, it's official: Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is the new Ag Committee Chair in the Senate. PHEW. BIG sigh of relief. This is wonderful news. She's not exactly Dennis Kucinich but she's a HUGE improvement over Blanche Lincoln, and there were fears that Ben Nelson or Kent Conrad would take the chairmanship instead of her, which also would have been worse.
Second, the Senate Republicans are playing all sorts of stupid games with the Food Safety bill - stuff that has nothing to do with food safety - and so the bill is stalled yet again. And now the Tea Party has started sending around frantic action alerts about how S. 510 is an evil government take over of your food and Glenn Beck is freaking out about it too.
Apparently, on Monday they will take votes on Coburn's bullshit amendments, and those votes will require a 2/3 majority which they won't get. Then they'll debate for a bit, have a cloture vote to end the debate (60 votes needed), and vote on the bill (simple majority needed). Stay tuned. And thanks to Naomi Starkman, Elanor Starmer, and Carol Tucker-Foreman for their help in navigating this very confusing process. |
