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
Here's the text of the second Tester amendment to the Food Safety bill, along with the parts of the bill it affects. The first part basically says that any facility grossing under $500,000 per year doesn't have to do a HACCP plan (i.e. a food safety plan). While this section is about processing facilities, NOT FARMS, the exemption will go to small businesses including many small farms that make jam or sundried tomatoes and the like.
The second part says that small facilities (those grossing under $500,000 per year) do not have to follow the new traceability laws other than keeping records of one step forward and one step back (i.e. "I bought these tomatoes from Green Valley Farm and I sold them to ABC Grocery").
On page 133, between lines 17 and 18, insert the following:
(l) DEFERRAL TO STATE REGULATION OF CERTAIN FACILITIES. This section shall not apply to a facility for a year if the average annual adjusted gross income of such facility for the previous 3-year period is less than $500,000.
On page 200, between lines 19 and 20, insert the following:
(C) LIMITATION FOR CERTAIN FACILITIES. In the case of a facility, in a year in which the average annual adjusted gross income of such facility for the previous 3-year period is less than $500,000, the recordkeeping requirements under this section shall be limited to records regarding the immediate suppliers and immediate subsequent recipients of such facility.
Several people have asked just exactly what Jon Tester's amendments do. It took a bit of fishing around to get the exact bill language that the amendment corresponds to - even AFTER I got the language of the amendment itself. So, here's the first one and I'll post the second one soon.
Here's the language of Tester's amendment:
On page [146], between lines [18] and [19], insert the following:
(f) EXEMPTION FOR DIRECT FARM MARKETING. This section shall not apply to a farm if, with respect to such farm, the annual value of sales of food directly to consumers, hotels, restaurants, or institutions exceeds the annual value of sales of food to all other buyers.
Below, you can see exactly what farms selling directly to consumers and institutions are exempted from. Essentially, they won't be required to follow the FDA's "science-based minimum standards for the safe production and harvesting of those types of fruits and vegetables that are raw agricultural commodities for which the Secretary has determined that such standards minimize the risk of serius adverse health consequences or death."
This requirement for "science-based" safety standards scares the hell out of many small farmers and for good reason. The government tends to think that something sterile that has been sprayed with every pesticide in the book is safer than something organic if the organic item has been touched by human hands or grown with manure as fertilizer.
That's not to say that the government has bad intentions here. I don't think they do. I don't doubt that this part of the bill was written with nothing other than food safety in mind. But also remember that humans have farmed for millennia without an FDA to tell them how to farm safely. It's only now that we've got big, industrialized food production that we see these food outbreaks where one screw-up can sicken people in every state in the country and result in millions of pounds of food recalled.
Consumers Union is concerned about this amendment because they are afraid that enormous farms (domestic or foreign) may engage in direct sales and then qualify for this exemption. And that may be true. I would definitely prefer this amendment specify that the exemption is only for farms grossing under $500,000 per year. However, I'd still rather see this amendment pass as is than not. If this amendment passes, it won't do anything to make food LESS SAFE. It's not changing the status quo. It just makes the bill a little less encompassing than it would otherwise be.
Over the past week, I've been beating the drum in favor of Jon Tester's amendments to the food safety bill in the Senate. The good news is that MOST of what is needed to fix the bill so that it simultaneously provides food safety regulations to big business while NOT harming small farms is good to go, at least in the Senate version of the bill. Two of the amendments that aren't a sure thing yet are the Tester amendments - the ones I've been promoting an action alert for (here).
However, I want to make sure I give everyone full information about these amendments as much as possible. After all, political philosophies differ and you may examine the facts and come down on a different side than I do, given the pros and cons at stake. I just got an email from Consumers Union saying that they do NOT support the Tester amendments. Here's why (below). And, as I make clear below, I'm still in support of the Tester amendments, even after reading through all of Consumers Unions concerns.
The food safety bill is expected to hit the Senate floor NEXT WEEK. The House bill and the current Senate version of the bill are pretty good on closing some important loopholes to ensure food safety BUT they are still detrimental to small, sustainable farms. Fortunately, Sen. Jon Tester is an organic farmer himself, so he really gets it. He's proposed an amendment that would put in place some much needed fixes to the bill.
We've got only a few days left to convince each Senator to support the Tester amendment. Given that, CREDO has set up a fax action alert (which is quite possibly the best way to reach your Senator quickly & effectively). Even if you've already called or emailed, please use CREDO's action alert to send a fax. Then email the fax link to your friends and family. Tweet it on Twitter! Post it on Facebook!
Senators Jon Tester and Mike Enzi led a successful effort to cut the funding for the National Animal ID System in the Senate version of the USDA budget. This is fantastic news! I've posted a press release with more details from the group R-CALF USA below.
Buy an autographed copy of Recipe for America LVL Gear
"Too Big to Fail" T-Shirt
(details)
Support La Vida Locavore
Subscribe for $10/month:
One-Time Gift:
