While in Boise, Idaho on Thursday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) publicly committed to holding a vote on the 2012 farm bill after the election. The commitment comes nearly a month after Congress let the last farm bill expire. “I’m committed to bring the issue to the floor and then to see a way forward so we can get the votes to pass [a bill],” said Cantor while at a campaign stop to support Rep. Paul Labrador (R-ID), according to a report in the Idaho Statesman. Cantor explained that he didn’t bring the farm bill to the floor of the House before October recess because “we don’t have the votes on the floor,” according to the paper. The Senate passed a farm bill with broad bipartisan support in June. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) lauded Cantor’s comments late Thursday. “I’m very pleased to hear that Majority Leader Cantor is now committed to bring the Farm Bill to the floor immediately after the election. America’s farmers, ranchers, small businesses and 16 million Americans employed in agriculture desperately need the certainty and disaster relief the Farm Bill provides,” said Stabenow in a statement. “We passed a bipartisan Farm Bill that reforms farm programs and cuts $23 billion in spending. I hope our colleagues in the House of Representatives will follow that lead with a bipartisan approach to this legislation. It is critical that we are able to finalize the Farm Bill before the beginning of next year when farm programs begin to expire, which would impact milk and food prices for families.” The Senate version of the farm bill would also repeal the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s fledgling catfish inspection program, which the Government Accountability Office has deemed costly and impractical. So far, the House has not made a similar move.
Helena Bottemiller is a Washington, DC-based reporter covering food policy and politics for Food Safety News. She has covered Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, and several high-profile food safety stories, including the half-billion Salmo
The Chilled Food Association has published updated guidance covering ready to eat (RTE) foods and Listeria monocytogenes.
The guidance states that food safety must be assured through Hazard Analysis Critical
A company in Vietnam has suspended production following reports that contaminated pork was discovered at one of its facilities.
Operations at the Ha Long Canned Food Factory in Hai Phong
At an FDA lab in Denver, Microbiologist Melissa Nucci preps for testing peanut butter samples for Salmonella. Photo courtesy of FDA’s flickr. With a globalized food supply brought to
Food safety experts are scratching their heads after a Washington Post article suggested last week that certain chemicals used in poultry processing might be masking the presence of Salmonella. It’
In response to growing frustration and increased media attention surrounding the response to the ongoing Cyclospora outbreak, which has now sickened at least 418 people in 16 states, Rosa DeLauro
Nearly 200,000 pounds of Chilean chicken is being recalled in the United States for dioxins only because the levels found violate Chile’s domestic limits, according to federal food
