Why Does David Dreier Want To Poison Your Family With Tainted Food Products? And He's Got Some Cronies In Congress Who Feel The Same Way

CA Congressmembers Dreier & Bono Mack dream of free market e. coli

Conservatives have always fought like mad dogs (if not blue ones) against protecting consumers from being poisoned by people selling bad food. Learning about the battles between progressives and conservatives regarding food safety in school helped me understand why I would never support conservatives and why I was-- and am-- a progressive. How in the pocket of Big Business do you have to be to risk killing your own constituents-- or even family members-- in the name of unregulated markets?

Yesterday the House failed to pass HR 2749, John Dingell's Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, a major overhaul of the FDA 280- 150. (It needed a 2/3's margin to pass under the rules so it lost by about 10 votes). Who would vote against food safety? You know the answer: conservatives, the whole reactionary Republican leadership and almost all the GOP loons in the House plus 23 mostly disgraceful Democrats, primarily Blue Dog congenital aisle jumpers like Heath Shuler (NC), Walt Minnick (ID), Travis Childers (MS), Parker Griffith (AL), Frank Kratovil (MD), Jim Marshall (GA), etc.

The DCCC sent out press releases today pointing out how California reactionaries Brian Bilbray, Mary Bono Mack, Ken Calvert, David Dreier, Elton Gallegly, Dana Rohrabacher, Dan Lungren, Tom McClintock, and Buck McKeon blocked Dingell's bill:

Despite recent outbreaks of food borne illnesses such as E.coli and salmonella, today Representative David Dreier blocked an attempt to strengthen and modernize the way we protect America’s food supply.
 
“Americans worrying about when the next outbreak of E.coli or salmonella will strike their families deserve better than Representative Dreier blocking a plan to keep our food supply safe,” said Ryan Rudominer, National Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

“It’s outrageous that Representative Dreier is willing to block solutions to make sure the food Americans feed to children is healthy and safe.” 

It is outrageous and Dreier should be defeated next year. But so should Minnick, Childers, Griffith and Kratovil, all of whom voted with Dreier and the Republicans and all of whom are on the Debbie Wasserman Schultz' DCCC Frontline Program. Donate to the DCCC and help defeat Republicans who want to poison our families and help re-elect with the same check Democrats who want to poison our families. How does Debbie Wasserman Schultz fall asleep at night or look in a mirror?

Meanwhile, the bill will be voted on today and it will only need a simple majority to pass. (Astute readers may have noticed that a small handful of dedicated progressives voted against the bill yesterday as well-- Lynn Woolsey, Maurice Hinchey, Chellie Pingree, Earl Blumenauer, Ben Ray Luján, Peter Welch, Steve Kagen, Eric Massa, and Martin Heinrich. After talking to a few Capitol Hill staffers and to food policy expert Jill Richardson (author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It) it appears that they are concerned about the burdensome effect on small organic farms since there's a flat $500 registration fee per facility and they thought it should be adjusted and made lower.)


UPDATE: The House Overcame GOP Obstructionism And Passed The Food Safety Enhancement Act

Adopting a rule that allowed the bill to pass with a simple majority, with just a few vote changes from yesterday-- 3 Democrats and 4 Republicans gave up their opposition-- the bill passed 283-142, another progressive victory for consumer protection against the extremism of anti-social mania of proft-driven conservatives. The California E. coli Republicans, Brian Bilbray, Mary Bono Mack, Ken Calvert, David Dreier, Elton Gallegly, Dana Rohrabacher, Dan Lungren, Tom McClintock, and Buck McKeon, all voted against the bill again. President Obama commended the House on passage:

Today the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, legislation that will raise food safety standards, allow the FDA to issue mandatory recalls of harmful products, and enhance our oversight of imported food.

This action represents a major step forward in modernizing our food safety system and protecting Americans from foodborne illness. Those are the goals of the Food Safety Working Group I convened in March and charged with making recommendations to improve our food safety system. And that is why we announced a new rule to control Salmonella contamination in eggs and are working to reduce the presence of harmful pathogens such as E. coli in meat and produce; strengthen our capacity to trace the source of outbreaks; and update our emergency operations procedures.

I commend the House of Representatives for its action today and look forward to working with the Senate to enact critical food safety legislation.