| A look at the bills I checked out:
Grassley-Dorgan - This was an amendment to the 2008 Farm Bill that narrowly lost to a filibuster. Obama is FOR it and includes it in his campaign platform, so the likelihood of getting this is high. This would cap commodity subsidies at $250,000 per farm and close up loopholes that allow people to evade rules. To find it on Thomas: S.Amdt 3695 to bill H.R.2419, vote #424 (Dec 2007).
Updating "Foods of Minimal Nutritional Value" - You can't serve "foods of minimal nutritional value" in schools. Except, we define "foods of minimal nutritional value reeeallly reeaally loosely. This bill, sponsored by Tom Harkin, would update that definition to keep more junk out of schools. It got plenty of support from Dems, but only 4 Republicans cosponsored it (Voinovitch, Murkowski, Specter, and our friend Ted Stevens who will no longer be with us next January). To find it on Thomas: S.771
Clones Aren't Organic: Updating the organic standards to ban products of clones in organic food. Introduced by Kohl and cosponsored by Feingold and Leahy. It seems that Senators from major dairy states (WI, PA, and NY) are very much in tune with dairy issues that get ignored by the others. Perhaps strangely (or not?) the California Senators do not seem to get in on these dairy issues even though California is an enormous dairy producer. Could it be that WI, NY, and VT have more family farms where as CA is more factory farms? Find it on Thomas: S.536 (and the H.R.1396 in the House)
The Packer Ban: A ban on meat packer ownership of livestock prior to slaughter. This would restore some degree of competition to the beef industry. Obama is for it so we can expect to see this pass in the next four years. Sponsored by Chuck Grassley. Find it on Thomas: S.305
Humane Slaughter of Non-Ambulatory Animals: We NEED this. The bill essentially outlaws cruel treatment of animals who are too ill to walk to their own deaths. Even if it passes, we also need a way to enforce it, but passing it is a good start. This was sponsored by Senator Akaka and supported mostly by Democrats (only 3 Republicans cosponsored it - Murkowski, Snowe, and Collins). Find it on Thomas: S.394
Country of Origin Labeling: This is now mandatory as of September 30, 2008, but it was initially passed years ago and the implementation was put off and put off. This bill attempted to put COOL into effect a year earlier than it actually was. It's now obviously a moot point, but it's nice to see who supported it: Baucus, Bingamna, Clinton, Conrad, Dorgan, Enzi, Feingold, Grassley, Johnson, Tester, Thune, and Wyden. Find it on Thomas: S.404
Ultrafiltered Milk Doesn't Go in Cheese: Ultrafiltered milk is the liquid version of Milk Protein Concentrate. It's essentially what you get when you filter all the good stuff out of milk and you're looking for a use for the leftovers. In other words, it's cheap. This bill basically says that if you put it in cheese, you can no longer call that product cheese. Amen! This was sponsored by Feingold and supported by 2 other dairy state Senators (Schumer and Clinton). Find it on Thomas: S.530
Improving Food Stamps: Currently, to qualify for food stamps, you need to have very few assets in addition to having an annual income under 135% of the poverty line. The asset limit is so low that it makes it hard for people on food stamps to use the assistance to pull themselves out of poverty, because we penalize them for saving by taking away their food stamps once they have too much in the bank. This bill raises the asset limit and specifies that money saved for retirement or education does not count towards the asset limit (which I believe might already be the case, but it's nice to see it in the bill anyway). Sponsored by Saxby Chambliss of all people, with support from Cochran, Lugar, Smith, and Roberts as well as a handful of Dems (Durbin, Harkin, Leahy, Lincoln, and Wyden). Note that 3 of the 4 chairs of the Senate Hunger Caucus are among the co-sponsors (Durbin, Lincoln, and Smith... missing is Dole). Find it on Thomas: S.591
Food Safety Administration: Durbin's been after this one for a while. He wants to establish a food safety administration to consolidate all food safety matters under one agency instead of keeping things spread out and disorganized among the USDA, FDA, and EPA as they are now. Find it on Thomas: S.654
Fresh Fruit and Vegetables: This one was Senator Clinton and nobody else. The idea is to get more fresh fruits and veggies into schools. There is already a Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program in existence but it is very limited at present - it provides fresh fruits and veggies to only 5 schools per state. Find it on Thomas.gov: S.1031
Allowing Specialty Crops on "Base Acres": This is best explained by an NY Times op ed called My Forbidden Fruits and Vegetables. Basically, if land is currently used for commodities that receive subsidies ("base acres"), you can't use it to grow fruits and veggies ("specialty crops"). This bill seeks to loosen that up THANK GOODNESS!! This is something we absolutely need in my opinion. It was sponsored by Sen. Lugar and it got a mere 5 cosponsors, all Dems: Bayh, Durbin, Feingold, Levin, and Stabenow. Clearly the Midwesterners are interested in growing something other than corn and soy. Notice the lack of support of anyone from CA, FL, or TX, states that would see additional fruits and veggies growing in the Midwest as their competition. (The same happened in the House, where all of the support was from WI, IN, MI, IL, OH, and MN, about evenly split between the parties.) Find it on Thomas: S.1188 (H.R.1371 in the House) |
