ARRA News Contributor Curtis Coleman identifies today opined that the Food Safety Modernization Act passed by the Senate on Tuesday may not be alive after all. The bill adopted by the Senate (S.510), was significantly different from the House version (H.R. 2749) passed in July, 2009, requiring either a reconciliation of the two bills or the House to adopt the Senate version. According to Roll Call, “A food safety bill that has burned up precious days of the Senate’s lame-duck session appears headed back to the chamber because Democrats violated a constitutional provision requiring that tax provisions originate in the House. . . .Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) could simply drop the issue and let the next session of Congress start from scratch or he could try to force the issue in the Senate after the House passes a new version of the bill. But in order to do that and still tackle the other issues, he would need a unanimous consent agreement to limit debate, an agreement to which the bill’s chief opponent, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) will be unlikely to agree."
Also yesterday, the House passed 256-152 H.R.4783: On Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendments. The original bill was to aid with income tax benefits for charitable cash contributions for the relief of victims of the earthquake in Chile. But what really happened was the addition of amendments for "$914 million in mandatory spending to ratify four Indian water rights settlement agreements. And, providing "$1.15 billion to pay the claimants in Pigford v. Vilsack, a 1997 case in which three African-American farmers alleged that the USDA had discriminated against them and other African-American farmers. Some Members have expressed concerns that various claims made after the Pigford decision may be fraudulent and have requested investigations."
That's the way business and politics has been done in the US Capitol. Bury over $2 billion in payments in a bill that had nothing to do with the purpose of the bill. As to where this this additional $2 billion dollars going to come from, your guess is as good as millions of other taxpayers. Remember the USDA employee Shirley Sherrod who was summarily dismissed, given an apology by the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and offered a new position which she choose not to accept. Well, Tom Blumer, Washington Examiner previously reported that "Only days earlier, she learned that New Communities, a group she founded with Sherrod and her husband and other families won a $13 million settlement in the minority farmers law suit Pigford vs Vilsack. . . . The Pigford matter goes back a long way, . . . As part of a April 14, 1999 class action case settlement, commonly known as the Pigford case, U.S. taxpayers have already provided over $1 billion in cash, non-credit awards and debt relief to almost 16,000 black farmers who claimed that they were discriminated against by USDA officials as they 'farmed or attempted to farm.'" So now Members of Congress approved "another $1.15 billion this week to settle cases from what some estimate may be an additional 80,000 African-Americans who have also claimed to have been discriminated against by USDA staff. ... Settling this case is clearly a priority for the White House and USDA."
The American taxpayers have a right to feel taken advantage of "again" by the Obama administration. The Obama administration and the Democrats have pushed to preserve the black vote and to fulfill a campaign promise without concern for the merits of the cases which haven't even been heard. Shirley Sherrod is mostly likely laughing all the way to the bank and may be doing so long into the future as she and her husband advise clients in their efforts to collect on theses newly appropriated funds.
Fox News reports today, “Every Senate Republican has signed onto a letter vowing to block all Democratic-backed legislation until the chamber extends the Bush tax cuts and approves a spending bill to keep the government running, Fox News has learned. Throwing down the gauntlet, all 42 members of the GOP caucus are sending the letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warning him that they will bring matters to a standstill unless he swiftly brings those tax-and-spending issues to the floor. That means putting on the back burner a push to repeal the military's policy banning gays from serving openly in the military, a bill giving illegal immigrant students and military members a pathway to legal status and an extension of long-term unemployment benefits.”
In their letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), all 42 Senate Republicans wrote, “[W]e write to inform you that we will not agree to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to any legislative item until the Senate has acted to fund the government and we have prevented the tax increase that is currently awaiting all American taxpayers. With little time left in this Congressional session, legislative scheduling should be focused on these critical priorities. While there are other items that might ultimately be worthy of the Senate's attention, we cannot agree to prioritize any matters above the critical issues of funding the government and preventing a job-killing tax hike. Given our struggling economy, preventing the tax increase and providing economic certainty should be our top priority.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell explained the letter in a speech on the floor this morning, “With just a few weeks to go before the end of the session, Democrats continue to place their own priorities over the priorities of the American people. These are the things Democrats have chosen to do instead of preventing a massive tax hike that economists tell us would stifle the economy. Republicans have pleaded with Democrats to put aside their wish-list — to focus on the things Americans want us to focus on. They’ve ignored us. The voters repudiated their agenda at the polls. They’ve ignored them. Time is running out. They’re ignoring that. The election was a month ago. It’s time to get serious. It’s time to focus on priorities.”
The letter points out, “Our constituents have repeatedly asked us to focus on creating an environment for private-sector job growth; it is time that our constituents’ priorities become the Senate’s priorities.” And Sen. McConnell concluded, “At the moment, every taxpayer in the country stands to get a massive tax increase — and a cut in pay — on December 31st. We need to show the American people that we care more about them and their ability to pay their bills than we do about the special interests' legislative Christmas-list. Republicans are united in our opposition to proceeding to any of these things until Democrats make the priorities of the American people their own.”
Yesterday, House Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-OH) made it clear that House Republicans are standing firm in their opposition to raising taxes on any American: “Republicans made a pledge to America to cut spending and permanently stop all the tax hikes, and that’s exactly what we’re fighting for.”
Tags: US Senate, US House, White House, Washington, D.C., liberals, Food Act, USDA, claims, politics, democrats, republicans To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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