The House of Representatives has already proven they will kill your unborn child for a big payoff. Perhaps the Senate can be convinced otherwise but the
NATIONAL UNIFORMITY FOR FOOD ACT has been sent to committee.
Today in the Los Angeles Times, Al Meyerhoff and Carl Pope wrote Warning: This bill could make you sick.
The clear lesson is that states often do more to protect consumers than do federal regulators. So why is Congress even considering passing a bill denying California and other states the right to protect citizens? Follow the money.
All told, food companies have forked over $5.2 million to the bill's 226 co-sponsors. The Californian members of Congress co-sponsoring the bill in the House received about $670,000 from food interests for this election cycle alone, and more than $1 million for 2004, according to public filings with the Federal Elections Commission. Some of the top money-getters are Reps. Richard Pombo (R-Tracy), $250,208); Devin Nunes (R-Visalia), $558,152); and Dennis Cardoza (D-Atwater) $239,152).
This bill is harmful to every American but what they say about mercury is really sickening;
The Food and Drug Administration recently announced that seafood contaminated by mercury -- a heavy metal found in our oceans mainly as the result of burning coal -- can be so hazardous that women "who are pregnant or may become pregnant" should avoid consumption. Mercury was present in fish at levels sometimes far exceeding the FDA's "action level."
So what "action" did the FDA take? Instead of seizing mercury-laden fish, as federal laws allow, it issued a press release; the seafood remained on supermarket shelves. Despite the FDA's inaction, Proposition 65 mandated that consumer warnings be placed on contaminated seafood sold in California. That encouraged the creation of the nation's first line of low-mercury fish under the "Safe Harbor" brand. Now it is your choice.
Somehow the House of Representatives feels that there is a mandate to stop California from warning pregnant mothers about mercury. As they pocket all of that money from food companies, they claim that so many regulations get too confusing for the consumer.
This very harmful bill will put a stop to state laws requiring food safety labels. The bill's preemptive language cuts very deeply into state rights, stating:
...no State or political subdivision of a State may, directly or indirectly, establish or continue in effect under any authority any notification requirement for a food that provides for a warning concerning the safety of the food, or any component or package of the food, unless such a notification requirement has been prescribed under the authority of this Act and the State or political subdivision notification requirement is identical to the notification requirement prescribed under the authority of this Act.
The editorial goes into a few other places where this bill will cause us harm besides poisoning unborn babies. As does the diary of Rep Louise Slaughter, Hold Congress accountable for selling out America to food poisoners. My old diary, Action Alert; National Uniformity for Food Act also has some useful information.
It's too late for the House of Representatives. The House bill that takes valuable information away from consumers was bipartisan with 283 ayes. 71 of those ayes were Democrats.
This bill is now in the hands of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Hopefully the senators will show some respect for their constituents and the rights of state governments.
But the senators will need to hear from voters because there is plenty on money in the grab bag for them too. Here is the E-mail Link for the Senate Committee.