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
U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, along with Senator Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., today announced a major agreement between the food and beverage industry and public health and education groups on national school nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools.
Why is the junk food lobby at the table to make rules about nutrition? Would you have a criminal at the table to make laws about crime? The American Beverage Association, Coca Cola, Mars, Nestle, and PepsiCo were all included in negotiations for the new school lunch nutrition standards in Lincoln's child nutrition bill. Under the bill, the USDA will set one set of nutrition standards for all food sold in schools during the school day (including vending machines). This is a change from current laws, which forbid the USDA from setting rules over most food sold in schools outside of the federally-reimbursable school lunch (i.e. the meal served to kids who receive free lunch).
So here's the question: What did public health groups give up by negotiating with the junk food lobby? What do public health experts think the school nutrition standards should be, and how far apart is that from the actual language of the bill?
The Senate has been bogged down in the debate over health care reform, and Harkin said his staff is tied up working on other must-pass bills. He said he hoped to have the committee take up the bill in December, but he assured her the issue wouldn't die.
"We're going to get it done," he said.
Recent food scares linked to peanut butter and other products have spurred interest in Congress in increasing the FDA's authority. Michael Taylor, a senior adviser at the FDA, told the victims and their families that the agency was poised to tighten its regulation of foods if Congress would just pass the legislation. "The forces have come together," he said. "Society is finally ready to deal with this problem."
Harkin said he expected the committee's bill to be a modified version of legislation introduced by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. Like the House bill, Durbin's legislation would give the Food and Drug Administration more authority over the 80 percent of the food supply - everything but meat and poultry - that the agency regulates. The administration would be required to inspect processors more often, and processors in turn would face new regulations for controlling against pathogens.
But the Durbin bill omits a key feature of the House-passed bill: a $500 fee on processors to offset the cost of increasing the administration's budget.
Scott Faber, a lobbyist for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, told Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register that he thinks this bill has less than a 50/50 chance of getting through Congress. The Grocery Manufacturers Association supported the food safety bill the House approved in June, but Faber observed, "As we get closer and closer to the [2010] election it makes it harder to move legislation."
Tom Harkin and 21 co-sponsors (the entire ag committee) introduced a Senate resolution to honor Norman Borlaug. Borlaug was the father of the Green Revolution - a revolution that sustainable ag folks do not consider very "green" at all, as it was the spreading of pesticides, fertilizers, and other industrial techniques around the world. Borlaug died this past week at the age of 95.
A special task force drew up the standards, which set limits on calories, fat content, sugar and other nutritional measures. Carbonated beverages are banned. Caffeinated beverages and sports drinks are banned in elementary schools.
But the rules do not apply to food provided by school lunch or breakfast programs, items sold at concession stands or certain fundraisers or items provided by parents, teachers or others for class events.
By that time, the regulations may have been relaxed, judging from what happened last week in the Iowa Legislature's Administrative Rules Review Committee (unofficial motto: "Where good rules go to die"). The rest of the story is after the jump.
It's a little backwards that seltzer water is prohibited from school cafeterias (its a "food of minimal nutritional value") but candy bars are allowed. And a small category of sugary junk (cotton candy, for example) is also prohibited from school cafeterias - but only during breakfast and lunchtime. That junk, which is thought to be so bad it can't be sold in the cafeteria during lunch, can be sold anywhere else in the school, and it can even be sold in the cafeteria during times other than breakfast and lunch. This is known as the "time and place" rule and it's a bane of those who wish to see the standards of school foods improved. So is the rule that sets which junk is so heinous it can't be sold in the cafeteria (a standard so lax that cookies, brownies, and candy bars are still permitted).
On June 24, a group of advocates from across the country (who are cleverly referred to by the event's planners as "The Healthy School Food Brigade") will gather in Washington, DC to try and change this.
Two menu-labeling bills are currently in Congress. To be totally honest, I don't think either of them are strong enough; but there's one clear choice of the two. One is a weak, bare-bones, Applebee's and McDonald's-friendly bill introduced by Tom Carper ("D"-DE) and Lisa "Daddy Appointed Me To The US Senate" Murkowski (R-AK), which is being pushed by industry lobbyists, corporate Democrats and Republicans; while the other was introduced on Thursday by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).
Tom Harkin just introduced S.934, a bill that will update the rules on what's allowed to be served or sold in schools. Right now, almost everything is fair game to sell in schools. You just can't sell the worst junk in the cafeteria during lunch time. Outside of the cafeteria, anything goes. In the cafeteria when it's not time for lunch, anything goes. The new bill will update that. The text of the bill is not up on the website yet, but seriously - there's no way the current laws could be made worse unless there was a new rule for mandatory soda and candy consumption in it. There's little doubt that whatever the text of the bill contains will be a needed improvement.
Here are the current co-sponsors of the bill:
Sen. Amy Klobuchar [D-MN]
Sen. Lisa Murkowski [R-AK]
Sen. Michael Bennet [D-CO]
Sen. Kent Conrad [D-ND]
Sen. Patrick Leahy [D-VT]
Sen. Robert Casey [D-PA]
Sen. Sherrod Brown [D-OH]
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY]
Today the Senate Ag Committee met to confirm three nominees to the USDA: Kathleen Merrigan (Deputy USDA Secretary), Jim Miller (Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services), and Joe Leonard (Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Civil Rights). All three will be confirmed, there is little doubt about that, but the highlight of the hearing for me was when Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) took Merrigan to task for her love of organic agriculture. Just one more reason we need to toss his ass out of the Senate in 2014.
Today the Senate Ag Committee held a hearing about child nutrition. There were two panels, but I'd like to focus on the second one for now - I'll get to the first one later. The second one involved one health professional and three industry representatives - one for dairy, one for Mars (as in the candy), and one for the American Beverage Association (i.e. soft drinks). Each of the industry reps presented their own special lines of bullshit, and Harkin totally took them to task over it. It was awesome. I wish I had some popcorn to munch while watching!!
UPDATE: If you want to express your thoughts to the Senate Ag committee, the committee # is 202-224-2035.
A few weeks ago, the Senate Ag Committee held a hearing on child nutrition programs. And what better way for me to deal with insomnia than by watching replays of Senate committee hearings? So here's the scoop.
The chair, Sen. Harkin (D-IA), kicked off the hearing with a statement. He called child nutrition a "down payment on comprehensive health reform." Well done, Sen. Harkin. Ranking Republican Saxby Chambliss spoke next. He made generally positive comments about child nutrition and bipartisanship.
Then the hearing began with its first panel (agenda below). This diary covers the first panel about school lunch. A second diary will address the panel on food outside of school.
Although I think concerns about earmarks are exaggerated, I do want to examine the origin of Senator Tom Harkin's $1.8 million earmark for studying odors from large hog confinements (CAFOs) in Iowa. It has become the poster child for Republican taunts about useless earmarks, prompting Harkin to defend himself (see here and here).
I wanted to give the La Vida Locavore community more background on the odor study research that the federal government will fund at Iowa State University. I'm sorry to say that I agree with those who say this research is part of a stalling strategy by CAFOs.
Harkin's earmark has its roots in unfortunate decisions that Iowa Democratic leaders made last year--with the enthusiastic support of statehouse Republicans and corporate ag groups. If you care to read more, follow me into the Iowa weeds after the jump.
On Capitol Hill, a $1.7 million earmark for pig odor research in Iowa has become a big, fat joke among Republicans, a Grade A example of pork. But the people who live cheek by jowl with hog farms in the No. 1 pig-producing state aren't laughing.
They're gagging.
"You hold your breath and when it's really bad you get the taste in your mouth," said Carroll Harless, a 70-year-old retired corn-and-soybean farmer from Iowa Falls.
Child nutrition is in the news - both because of the bad economy and because of the upcoming child nutrition reauthorization. I wrote about the hunger lobby's priorities for the upcoming reauthorization bill yesterday. Today I'd like to focus on the D.C. angle of the story.
"Efforts to increase participation by needy children in child nutrition programs." In other words, make sure the programs we already have reach ALL the hungry kids who need them.
Make sure we get food to kids in all settings where they need it - vacations from school, preschools, after school, etc.
Combatting childhood obesity. Extra funding targeted to healthier diets for kids.
Modernization and overall increased efficiency of federal programs. That means allowing people to apply for things online (not just on paper), and "cross program certification" (i.e. if you qualify for one program, you are automatically qualified for other programs - that way you don't need to apply individually for each).
More below, about the Senators' letter and upcoming legislation:
For 34 years, Henry's Turkey Service acted as landlord, caretaker and employer for dozens of mentally retarded men sent from Texas to Atalissa [Iowa] to work in West Liberty's meat-processing plant. The men were housed in a former schoolhouse, known as "the bunkhouse." Nine days ago, state officials shut down the bunkhouse, describing conditions there as unsafe and "deplorable."
In return for working 30 to 40 hours per week, the workers received room, board and care in the bunkhouse, plus a salary that, in some cases, averaged 44 cents an hour.
The Des Moines Register quoted Harkin describing the conditions as "pretty close to slavery."
