Food-safety bill clears key Senate hurdle 
 
 By J. Taylor Rushing - 
 
 After a year of waiting in line, legislation to promote food safety on Wednesday moved toward passage during the Senate’s lame-duck session. 
 
 Almost a year to the day after a unanimous committee vote, the long-stalled food-safety bill by Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) passed on a 74-25 procedural vote. 
 
 The Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee passed the legislation on Nov. 18, 2009, in a 16-0 bipartisan vote. The measure was forced onto the back burner while the upper chamber grappled with healthcare and financial regulation reforms. 
 
 The House passed its version of the bill in July 2009 by a vote of 283-142. 
 
 The bill would require more frequent inspections at food-processing plants and would give the government more authority in food-recall cases. The measure is being pushed by Durbin, HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), and organizations such as The Pew Charitable Trusts. 
 
 “Senators often talk about the importance of addressing so-called ‘kitchen table issues’ — the practical, everyday concerns of working Americans. Well, food safety is literally a ‘kitchen table’ issue,” Harkin said in a floor speech just before the vote. “And it couldn’t be more urgent or absurdly overdue. It is shocking to think that the last comprehensive overhaul of America’s food-safety system was in 1938 — more than seven decades ago.” 
 
 Sandra Eskin, director of Pew’s food-safety campaign, had been promoting the bill for more than a year. 
 
 “I’ve always been taught that patience is a virtue. We’re thrilled and we’re hopeful that we’ll get the bill to the floor soon,” Eskin said after the vote. 
 
 Democratic leaders mindful of bipartisan support were cautiously optimistic about Wednesday’s vote. One senior Democratic aide said leaders are hopeful a final vote can happen later Wednesday or on Thursday, or else a weekend session is possible. 
 
 “It all depends on the Republicans and what they’ll agree to,” the aide said. 
 
 The bill has 20 co-sponsors, of which eight are Republicans, including Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.). Other Republicans such as Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.), however, are opposed. 
 
 Coburn told The Hill that the food-safety bill "doesn't fix the real problems," but rather compounds them by adding more responsibilities to the Food and Drug Administration or Department of Agriculture, which he said have erred too often in the past when responding to outbreaks. 
 
 "Fixing the real problems is about making the bureaucracy work right, not adding more layers and rules and bureaucracy," Coburn said. "I want us to have food safety, but for every dollar additionally spent, how much can you really improve? We have the safest food in the world, but you can't get to 100 percent. So at what point do you stop spending additional dollars? It's like homeland security. Can we ever spend enough money to be absolutely sure nothing happens? No, we can't." 
 
 The Senate bill is considered less controversial than the House version. Some of the more contentious issues, such as imposing fees on food facilities to help finance the Food and Drug Administration's food-safety inspection efforts, were not included in the version that passed through the HELP committee. 
 
 Among other provisions, the legislation would do the following: 
 
 • Attempt to prevent food-borne illnesses from reaching the population by requiring food-processing plants to upgrade the frequency and thoroughness of their safety inspections; 
 
 • Require the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department and Agriculture Department to jointly develop a national plan to improve food safety, as well as an HHS requirement for a national system to better prevent problems in the food supply; 
 
 • Grant HHS greater authority to order recalls of suspected tainted food; 
 
 • Improve inspections of foreign food imported into the United States. ||||| The Senate today approved a cloture motion for the long-awaited FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, or S. 510. The cloture vote, which eliminates the threat of filibuster by limiting debate, is a key step forward for the beleaguered bill. 
 
 Late last night staffers worked to iron out language and try to broker deals on the Tester and bisphenol A amendments. Both have become controversial speed bumps for the slow-moving bipartisan bill, which among other things would give the FDA more authority in testing for food pathogens, tracing outbreaks, ordering recalls and penalizing companies that sell contaminated food. 
 
 The Tester provision, introduced by Jon Tester (D-MT) and supported by Kay Hagan (D-NC) aims to exempt small farmers and producers from major food safety regulation. The BPA amendment is Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) attempt to place federal limits on the use of the chemical in food and beverage containers. It focuses especially on products used by infants and small children. 
 
 Interest groups on all sides of the legislation and the amendments are working diligently behind the scenes. 
 
 Food Democracy Now!, an Iowa-based sustainable agriculture advocacy organization, told Food Safety News that more than 2,000 of its members have made phone calls on behalf of the Tester amendment. 
 
 “This is an important test to see if Democrats and Republican senators representing farm states will stand up for small farmers or cave to special interests and agribusiness,” said Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of the organization. “It could be the first lesson the food movement gets on how the new Congress will respond during the 2012 Farm Bill.” 
 
 “The behind-the-scenes efforts to kill any provisions that protect family farmers from burdensome regulations has been intense, but efforts by real farm groups and sustainable ag organizations may have turned the tide,” added Murphy. 
 
 As Food Safety News reported yesterday, large food and agriculture interest groups, including the American Meat Institute, the United Fresh Produce Association, and the United Egg Producers, sent a letter to committee staff Monday asking that the Tester amendment be excluded from the bill. 
 
 Popular authors and food policy gurus, Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan, issued a joint statement Tuesday, through Tester’s office, stating their support of the senator’s amendment and the food safety legislation. 
 
 “S 510 is the most important food safety legislation in a generation,” they said. “The Tester amendment will make it even more effective, strengthening food safety rules while protecting small farmers and producers. We both think this is the right thing to do.” 
 
 Sen. Tester has said in the past that he believes he has ample support for his amendment, but with the late-in-the game lobbying the outlook is less certain. 
 
 The BPA amendment is also in flux. Ami Gadhia, policy counsel for Consumers Union, who has been working on the issue, said he remains optimistic that in the final stretch an agreement will be reached. 
 
 “[Senator Feinstein] has tried really hard to meet industry halfway,” said Gadhia. “We’re still hopeful.” 
 
 © Food Safety News ||||| The Senate has voted to move forward on a far-reaching food safety bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration more power to prevent foodborne illnesses. 
 
 The Senate voted 74-25 to proceed with the bill. Supporters needed 60 votes because Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., had objected, saying the legislation's $1.4 billion cost isn't paid for. 
 
 The bill would give the FDA more authority to recall tainted products, increase inspections of food processors and require producers to follow stricter standards for keeping food safe in the wake of outbreaks of contaminated peanuts, eggs and produce that have sickened hundreds. 
 
 Also on Wednesday, the Senate blocked a measure designed to reduce wage disparities between men and women. The 58-41 vote to take up the Paycheck Fairness Act fell short of the 60 needed to overcome GOP opposition. 
 
 Civil rights groups, labor leaders and the Obama administration all supported the bill, which would make employers prove that any disparities in wages are job-related and not sex-based. Republicans and business groups said the bill would expose employers to more litigation by removing limits on punitive and compensatory damage awards. 
 
 Whether the food safety bill could make it to the president's desk during the brief lame-duck congressional session is unclear since the House passed a different version of the legislation in 2009. Even if the Senate passes the bill, the two pieces of legislation would have to be quickly reconciled before the end of this session sometime after Thanksgiving. 
 
 Supporters are still negotiating with two senators expected to offer amendments to the bill _ Sen. Jon Tester, D. Mont., who is concerned the legislation will be burdensome on small farms, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who plans to offer an amendment to limit the use of the plastics chemical bisphenol-A. 
 
 Tester's amendment, which would exempt some smaller farms from the bill's requirements, has gained support among grassroots advocates for buying food produced locally. While the bill is designed to give the Food and Drug Administration greater authority over the nation's food supply, supporters of the Tester amendment say it could bankrupt some small farms that don't have the means to comply with new standards the bill would impose. 
 
 Those standards could include registering food safety plans with the FDA and documenting efforts to show food is not contaminated as it is produced. 
 
 Food safety advocates have objected to some of the exemptions, saying Tester's concerns are overblown and the size of the farm is not as important as the safety of the food. 
 
 Feinstein's amendment would ban BPA, a chemical used to harden plastics in some food containers and hundreds of other household items, from some products. Some scientists and activists who oppose the use of the chemical have said it can interfere with development and possibly cause cancer. 
 
 Feinstein has insisted on offering the amendment to the bill, and negotiations on the issue have been ongoing for months. She issued a statement Wednesday saying the faces opposition from industry. 
 
 "We are still trying to work out details of an agreement, but chemical industry lobbyists are doing everything in their power to block any progress on the issue," Feinstein said. 
 
 President Barack Obama issued a statement in support of the Senate food safety bill Tuesday, saying the legislation would address "long-standing challenges" of the FDA by helping producers prevent foodborne outbreaks and giving the government more tools to keep food safe. 
 
 Recent outbreaks have exposed a lack of resources and authority at the FDA as the embattled agency has struggled to contain and trace contaminated products. 
 
 Currently, the FDA does not have the authority to order a recall and must negotiate recalls with the affected producers. The agency rarely inspects many food facilities and farms, visiting some every decade or so and others not at all. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Sam Hananel contributed to this report.
– A major food safety bill cleared a Senate hurdle today, but it's getting friction from a group you might not expect: locavores. They want small family farms to be exempt from the sweeping new regulations and are pushing for an amendment to that effect from Montana Democrat Jon Tester. Two high-profile names from the food world are on board, notes Food Safety News: Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser. "S 510 is the most important food safety legislation in a generation," they said in a joint statement. "The Tester amendment will make it even more effective, strengthening food safety rules while protecting small farmers and producers. We both think this is the right thing to do." Another potential holdup is an amendment from Dianne Feinstein to put limits on the use of the plastics chemical bisphenol-A in food and beverage containers, notes the AP. Negotiations with both senators continue as the Senate proceeds with the bill, which would still have to be reconciled with a House version from last year. Time is running out to get that down in the lame-duck session. The Hill has more details on the proposed new FDA powers.