by Curtis Coleman
According to a late story yesterday by Roll Call, the Food Safety Modernization Act passed by the Senate on Tuesday may not be alive after all. The bill adopted by the Senate (S.510), was significantly different from the House version (H.R. 2749) passed in July, 2009, requiring either a reconciliation of the two bills or the House to adopt the Senate version.
According to Roll Call, the “bill that has burned up precious days of the Senate’s lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber because Democrats violated a constitutional provision requiring that tax provisions originate in the House.
“By pre-empting the House’s tax-writing authority, Senate Democrats appear to have touched off a power struggle with members of their own party in the House. The Senate passed the bill Tuesday, sending it to the House, but House Democrats are expected to use a procedure known as ‘blue slipping’ to block the bill, according to House and Senate GOP aides.
“The debacle could prove to be a major embarrassment for Senate Democrats, who sought Tuesday to make the relatively unknown bill a major political issue by sending out numerous news releases trumpeting its passage.
“Section 107 of the bill includes a set of fees that are classified as revenue raisers, which are technically taxes under the Constitution. According to a House GOP leadership aide, that section has ruffled the feathers of Ways and Means Committee Democrats, who are expected to use the blue slip process to block completion of the bill.”
Roll Call speculates that “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could simply drop the issue and let the next session of Congress start from scratch” or “he could try to force the issue in the Senate after the House passes a new version of the bill. But in order to do that and still tackle the other issues, he would need a unanimous consent agreement to limit debate,” an agreement to which the bill’s chief opponent, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) will be unlikely to agree.
Read the full Roll Call story here.
Curtis Coleman is President of the The Curtis Coleman Institute for Constitutional Policy.
