Early this month Roy Blunt hid language protecting Monsanto from judicial review of its GMO regardless of the consequences to Human health, Congress passed it without knowing what the bill said and Obama signed it
1.) “The ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ effectively bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of controversial genetically modified (aka GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds, no matter what health issues may arise concerning GMOs in the future.” (Studies have revealed severe adverse health effects related to the consumption of genetically modified foods.)
Monsanto has a track record around the globe of putting its profits ahead of health concerns and there have been both toxins and birth defects traced back to its international campaign to deregulate safety provisions for food and drugs.
2.) “The provision’s language was written in collusion with Monsanto… the fact that Sen. Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri worked with Monsanto on a provision that in effect allows them to keep selling seeds, which can then go on to be planted, even if it is found to be harmful to consumers, is stunning.”
The language makes it clear that Monsanto expects its product to be harmful to consumers and Congress just another regulatory authority to be bribed into looking the other way
3.) “Many members of Congress were apparently unaware that the ‘Monsanto Protection Act’ existed within the bill they were voting on.” HR 933 was a spending bill aimed at averting a government shutdown.
A Congress that allows lobbyists to write legislation and or suggest language and amendments which get buried in bills that nobody reads does more damage to this country than any terrorist act of sabotage and ought to be treated accordingly.
“In this hidden backroom deal, Sen. [Barbara] Mikulski turned her back on consumer, environmental and farmer protection in favor of corporate welfare for biotech companies such as Monsanto,” Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of the the Center for Food Safety said in a statement. “This abuse of power is not the kind of leadership the public has come to expect from Sen. Mikulski or the Democrat Majority in the Senate.”
Unfortunately it is the kind of "leadership" we have come to expect not only from Republican operatives and saboteurs dedicated to inserting poison pills into every piece of legislation that manages to make it to their desks but even Democrats who see corporate welfare earmarked for their districts as a plus regardless of what the legislation does.
4.) “On Tuesday, Obama signed HR 933 while the rest of the nation fixated on gay marriage as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument concerning California’s Proposition 8.” (250,000 voters signed a petition opposing the provision.)
Obama has a lot of stuff on his plate that is not unimportant and a Congress that is nothing if not obstructionist from which he needs every vote but there ought to be enough staff checking legislation for bombs in the luggage of those on the Congressional no fly list like Blunt that this sort of thing should not be allowed to get through the gate.
5.) The precedent, the message it sends is that corporations can get around consumer protections and safety. It suggests that court challenges are a privilege, not a right.)
It suggests whatwe have here is a failure to communicate
Opponents of the provision say it was jammed through Congress without a proper hearing in relevant committees. I wonder why that would be….
Hidden Provision (deep into a homeland security section)
Its ironic that Homeland Security legislation would be the port of entry for this weapon of mass destruction, but if we can't get gun control after Newtown you have to wonder if the damage being done is accidental.
Carl Gibson explains the anatomy of this secret slip. “Thanks to Monsanto’s aggressive lobbying, Congress hid a provision deep into a homeland security section of their recently passed budget, by way of a long-winded paragraph loaded with indecipherable legalese.” The legalese, however, has a purpose. It allows the agribusiness giant to plant genetically-modified (GM) crops without judicial review, judicial review aimed at determining whether or not their crops are unsafe. “Essentially, Monsanto bought enough influence to bypass the system of checks and balances.”
Even had it allowed judicial review the Federalist Society has managed to stack the courts with judges whose sense of justice is equivalent to the savants on the science committee who are in denial of global warming, evolution and mathematics.
“Although Obama said in 2007 that he would “immediately” work to label GM foods if elected, Obama in 2012 appointed a Monsanto executive as his administration’s food safety czar.” No wonder the bill slipped in, paving the way for mutant food to hit the grocery store shelves without any obstacles.
Like the Right wing school boards revison of textbooks to put creationism and intelligent design on a level playing field with evolution and science and the state legislatures making war on women, undocumented immigrants and voting rights, the refusal to confirm appointments for the Obama administration has left a decision making process full of Bush Administration stay behinds busily deregulating every department of the executive branch. It got "slipped in" about the same way date rape drugs find their way into cocktails.