Agriculture
Chair: Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Max Baucus (D-MT)
- Michael Bennet (D-CO)
- Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- Bob Casey (D-PA)
- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
- Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Pat Leahy (D-VT)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
- Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Mike Johanns (R-NE)
- Dick Lugar (R-IN)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Pat Roberts (R-KS)
- John R. Thune (R-SD)
Appropriations
Chair: Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Jack Reed (D-RI)
- Robert Bennett (R-UT)
- Christopher Bond (R-MO)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)
Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions
- Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Agriculture
Chair: B Collin Peterson (D-MN)
V. Chair: B Tim Holden (D-PA)
B Joe Baca (D-CA)
- John Boccieri (D-OH)
B* Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
- Bobby Bright (D-AL)
B* Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
- Travis Childers (D-MS)
B Jim Costa (D-CA)
- Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
- Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
B Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
- Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
B Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
- Steve Kagen (D-WI)
- Larry Kissell (D-NC)
B Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Betsy Markey (D-CO)
B Jim Marshall (D-GA)
P Eric Massa (D-NY)
B Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
- Walt Minnick (D-ID)
B Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
- Mark Schauer (D-MI)
- Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
B David Scott (D-GA)
B Zachary Space (D-OH)
- Timothy Walz (D-MN)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- K. Michael Conaway (R-TX)
- Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
- Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
- Sam Graves (R-MO)
- Timothy Johnson (R-IL)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
- Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Mike Rogers (R-AL)
- Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE)
- Glenn Thompson (R-PA) *=House Organic Caucus member B=Blue Dog Democrat
Appropriations
Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI) Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
* Allen Boyd (D-FL)
- Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
*P Sam Farr (D-CA)
*P Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY)
P Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
P Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
- Jack Kingston (R-GA)
- Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
- Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
* Tom Latham (R-IA) *=House Organic Caucus member
P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
Education and Labor
P Chair: George Miller (D-CA)
- Jason Altmire (D-PA)
- Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
- Timothy Bishop (D-NY)
P Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
- Joe Courtney (D-CT)
- Susan Davis (D-CA)
P Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
P Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
P Phil Hare (D-IL)
- Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX)
P Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Rush Holt (D-NJ)
- Dale Kildee (D-MI)
P Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
P Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
- Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
P Donald Payne (D-NJ)
- Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Robert Scott (D-VA)
- Joe Sestak (D-PA)
- Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
P John Tierney (D-MA)
- Dina Titus (D-NV)
- Paul Tonko (D-NY)
P Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- David Wu (D-OR)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA)
- Judy Biggert (R-IL)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Michael Castle (R-DE)
- Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
- Luis F Fortuno (R-PR)
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
- Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
- Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA)
- John Kline (R-MN)
- Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
- Tom McClintock (R-CA)
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Thomas Petri (R-WI)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
- Tom Price (R-GA)
- Mark Souder (R-IN)
- GT Thompson (R-PA)
- Joe Wilson (R-SC) P=Congressional Progressive Caucus
(Where is our Under Secretary for Food Safety? - promoted by JayinPortland)
I was wrong when I wrote, on Thursday, that one more day remained for the Senate to confirm Elisabeth Hagen to be USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety before recess. The Senate went to recess Thursday evening, next scheduled meeting September 13. I don't know if Pelosi's calling the House back will result in a special Senate session.
The next day, Friday, USDA FSIS announced the recall of another million pounds of frozen ground beef.
UPDATE:President Obama made three recess appointments today (Saturday). Elisabeth Hagen is not one of them. I guess Undersecretary for Food Safety is not a "key administration position."
CORRECTION: I deleted a link attached to the above update, which indicates that three recess appointments were made on August 7, 2010. That is an error by me. Those recess appointments were made July 7, 2010. No appointments have been announced during this recess, as of August 9, 2010.
Nobody's been in charge of food safety at the USDA for the past year. That's the bad news. The new news (and maybe good news?) is that Obama finally announced plans to nominate Dr. Elisabeth Hagen for the job. She's no newbie to the USDA. She's currently their Chief Medical Officer and she previously served in a senior post within FSIS (USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service). She's a medical doctor who went to Harvard Medical School and she specializes in infectious disease.
Bill Marler's got a post up about the announcement here, but he doesn't provide much information beyond what the USDA press release says about her. Obama Foodorama also posted about her but she doesn't offer much new information either.
So I suppose the overall story is that we finally have someone in charge of meat and poultry food safety (a full YEAR into the Obama administration) and she might be okay. She might even be good. Who knows. I'll continue to keep an eye on this one.
In a diary posted at Daily Kos, I have outlined seven reasons to be concerned about President Obama's planned nominee for Under Secretary of Food Safety, at USDA. Unfortunately, you'll have to go there to read it because this site keeps rejecting the code I tried to cross-post. (Something about a "java" error.)
I do hope that you will read it, though, because the safety of our food supply depends on getting the right person in that job.
A New York Times article revealing disturbing practices at beef processors reminds us never to let down our guard when handling ground beef, lest a virulent strain of Escherichia coli, O157:H7, lead to crippling illness or death. Food scientists warn that even "a few stray cells" of this E.coli strain can cause illness. Forget about cleaning the cutting board with soap or scrubbing. You'll need bleach to remove the threat. Better yet, think of your kitchen as a biosafety lab.
The likelihood of being exposed to a food toxin is heightened by a food safety system with holes that beef processors regularly exploit. For example, meat processors are not required to check for bacteria in meat received from multiple domestic and international suppliers, and "many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies [NY Times]." Other problems, like filthy equipment and handling, have been around since Upton Sinclair's 1906 expose, "The Jungle.'
(Thanks to Bill Marler - the man who SHOULD be our next USDA Under Secretary For Food Safety - for this! - promoted by Jill Richardson)
I began my career as a food safety attorney because Lauren Beth Rudolph died on December 28, 1992 in her mother's arms, due to complications of an E. coli O157:H7 infection - Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome. She was only 6 years, 10 months, and 10 days old when she died. Her death, the deaths of three other children, and the sicknesses of 600 others, were eventually linked to E. coli O157:H7 tainted hamburger produced by Von's and served at Jack in the Box restaurants on the West Coast during late 1992 and January 1993. I met Roni Rudolph, Lauren's mom, when I litigated the case against Jack in the Box. We've been friends in the ensuing sixteen years.
What I can say is that Mande looks pretty good. That is, his credentials are good and all of my preliminary digging around has not found any indications of previous employment as a lobbyist. Mande has a Masters in Public Health from UNC Chapel Hill with a focus on Nutrition and Epidemiology. He began his career as a staffer to Congress, working on food safety legislation. He's worked at the FDA (he designed the Nutrition Facts food label), and he's worked at the Dept of Labor as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Occupational Health. He's also worked at the White House as a policy advisor on food safety, tobacco, and cancer. His most recent job was at Yale's School of Medicine, at their Cancer Center. There, he "developed a national model to increase support for cancer prevention and control, including diet, exercise, and obesity." He also began and managed a program to improve cancer care for underserved populations.
I have a message for Tom Vilsack: Please do NOT appoint industry foxes to the USDA food safety henhouse. Or, put another way, please lock the revolving door between industry and government and toss the key into the Potomac. And by that I mean: Do NOT appoint Michael Doyle to the USDA's top food safety position.
The U.S. has obviously had a number of major food safety problems in the recent past. There are two ways to deal with the problems this present to business: 1) Actually fix the problem or 2) Cover up and deny the problem. Obviously option 1 benefits eaters and option 2 means more people will get sick or die. So we need to go with option 1. My fear is that industry wants to go with option 2. It's the USDA's job to do the right thing instead of caving to industry pressure. And right now, it seems like industry really, really, really wants to see Michael Doyle - their guy - in charge of food safety at the USDA. Word on the street has it that Doyle's the nearly definite pick for the job.
Why am I not so hot on Doyle as a choice? Let's start by looking at the company he keeps. He's the director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety, whose board of advisors includes Coca-Cola, Cargill, ConAgra, Kraft, Hormel, McDonalds, and more. You can buy a seat on the board for a mere $20,000, and that will get you the opportunity to "provide input on food safety research needs of the industry" in the words of Doyle (in a letter he sent out inviting companies to buy influence donations).
He's also gotten mucho dinero for research from corporations Con-Agra, FreshExpress, and Ecolab. Small surprise then that he favors industry friendly techno-fixes that cover up the problems of food safety without correcting them at their sources.
That includes fixes like using carbon monoxide to keep the color of beef red - a practice consumer advocates call problematic because color is a major indicator of tainted meat so an unsuspecting consumer might not know that his still-red carbon monoxide-treated beef has gone bad. Doyle says that consumers can still use odor and "use by" dates to tell if the product is bad.
Another favorite for Doyle is irradiation - a practice Safe Food author Marion Nestle calls "a late-stage techno-fix to a problem that should never have happened in the first place." In other words - first put the poop in the food, then nuke it so nobody gets sick. Riiight. But Doyle thinks that's A-OK. He's been quoted as saying:
Well, I agree that irradiation is a very safe process, and it will make the product much safer - NPR's "Talk of the Nation Science Friday," August 29, 1997
Here's another good one from Doyle, from "Healthy Living: How safe is our Food?: With terror attacks possible, experts weigh in on risks, security measures" by Elizabeth Lee, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 9, 2002. He was asked if food was safe. He answered:
I don't think we should be overly concerned about processed foods, especially those that are fully processed by major companies.
I want somebody who is less trusting of major corporations, who isn't accustomed to letting them buy influence, and who wants to actually fix problems instead of merely covering them up or sterilizing them after they occur. Vilsack, the American people deserve better than this. Especially now, in light of the food safety problems that the Obama administration has clearly made it a priority to fix. Please, actually fix those problems.
According to Obama Foodorama, Tom Vilsack will likely select Michael Doyle as the Under Secretary for the Food Safety and Inspection Service. And why is that bad?
Let's start with who's behind his nomination: Saxby "I hate sustainable agriculture" Chambliss. Yes, the very same Saxby Chambliss who got his Senate seat by accusing the incumbent Senator, a war hero (who lost 3 limbs in Vietnam), of being for the terrorists. Plus several Senators from states with major factory farm interests. And then there's the details on Michael Doyle himself:
Doyle is currently Director of the Center For Food Safety at the University of Georgia, and a professor in the department of food safety and technology. His work at the land-grant university has been heavily funded by major meat industry concerns, and Doyle has won big acclaim for his industry-friendly policy wonking, in particular from the American Meat Institute, a huge pro-meat/low-government intervention lobbying force on The Hill. He's also received big funding and support from the National Chicken Council, another industry lobbying group.
Please, send an email to AgSec@usda.gov and tell Vilsack you don't want Doyle to get the nomination. He's got too much of a conflict of interest. Or, put another way, he's the fox and FSIS is the henhouse.
Last week the House Ag Committee held a food safety hearing. Their distinguished guests included a representative from the USDA and a zillion reps from factory farms. Nice, huh? The purpose of the hearing was to examine food safety at the USDA only (not the FDA, which is under the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee).
This diary covers the testimony from the USDA, who spoke on the first panel. I will post a follow-up diary with summaries of the testimony from the meat industry.
Earlier Desmoinesdem posted an action alert about disappointing potential USDA appointees. Here's a letter I just sent to AgSec@usda.gov - it's similar to the letter Desmoinesdem posted... but I doctored it up a bit with my own creative touches.
Dear Secretary Vilsack,
I was initially a skeptic when you were appointed but thus far you've impressed me. That said, I would definitely change my positive opinion of you if you choose to appoint either Michael Osterholm or Michael Taylor to any position at the USDA. I ask that you take the lead in helping America protect the safety of its food supply by appointing a real reformer at the I USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) position and advising President Obama not to name Michael Taylor to any position in the administration.
Please appoint someone other than Michael Osterholm, who has proven to be too biased in favor of a single technology that has been ineffective in stopping food safety outbreaks and is something that most American consumers don't want. My feeling on irradiation is that sterile shit is still shit and I don't want it in my food. As Marion Nestle called it, "it is a late-stage techno-fix to a problem that should never have happened in the first place."
I took the President at his word when he said he would close the revolving door in this new administration and I know that you want to lead a new era at the USDA. If you look in the dictionary under "revolving door" you will literally see Michael Taylor's picture. Why would you want to open up the USDA to that kind of critique or ridicule by appointing him?
Please appoint true reformers to positions within the USDA to help you transform America's food and farm system for the 21st century.
Thanks for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Jill Richardson
More info coming on this topic soon, courtesy of Ms. Obama Foodorama :) I urge everyone to send letters like this to the email address listed above - or wait for more information and send your own personalized letter then.
