The Senate on Sunday night cleared a food safety package,
curbing earlier fears the popular bill would die by the end of
this session as a result of a procedural error by upper chamber
lawmakers.
Aides close to the bill expect it to return to the House this
week and that the overhaul of a nearly-century-old regulatory
system finally will find its way to the president's desk after a
circuitous and frustrating go-around the Capitol.
The Senate first passed the food safety bill on an overwhelming
bipartisan vote at the end of November, but the effort was
voided after it was revealed the bill included several
tax-related provisions that had to originate from the lower
chamber. The House then included the language of the food safety
legislation in its version of the continuing resolution to avoid
government shutdown.
Fearful that top Senate negotiators would remove the food safety
language from the overall spending bill to pass the budget
measure before Christmas, supporters of the legislation found a
shell bill that originated from the House to use as the vehicle
for the food safety bill and return it to the lower chamber -
therefore eliminating the original constitutional constraint.
"Tonight we unanimously passed a measure to improve on our
current food safety system by giving the FDA the resources it
needs to keep up with advances in food production and marketing,
without unduly burdening farmers and food producers," Majority
Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement after the measure
was approved by unanimous consent.