Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to H.R. 5116, America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2010; Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendments to H.R. 2751, FDA Food Safety Modernization Act; and Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendme

Floor Speech

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Mr. LUCAS. Mr. Speaker, once again I must rise in opposition to this rule to reconsider the Senate language from S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act--now contained in H.R. 2751, a bill related to the Cash for Clunkers program.

As I have stated before, I believe our Nation has the safest food supply in the world. I also believe that we must continually examine our food production and regulatory system and move forward with changes that improve food safety.

I am very disappointed in the process by which this legislation is being considered. What we have here is another expansion of Federal power without benefit of thorough consideration. This is the stimulus bill, cap-and-trade, and the health care bill all over again.

The House version of this legislation was rolled out in draft form and marked up in the Energy and Commerce Committee over a couple of weeks during the summer of 2009. During all that time, members of the House Agriculture Committee stood ready and willing to work on this legislation. It is unfortunate that, despite a clear jurisdictional claim, the House Agriculture Committee did not demand that the bill be referred, conduct hearings on its provisions, and work our will to make improvements.

During the committee hearing in the summer of 2009 on the general topic of food safety, not a single producer witness would support the bill. It was a stunning failure to fulfill our legislative responsibilities. Despite this, the House Democratic leadership chose to attempt to pass this legislation under a suspension of the rules. Because of the flawed legislative process and lingering concerns about the contents of the bill, it was defeated. Failing to learn the lesson of that vote, within days, the leadership subsequently secured a closed rule denying Members the opportunity to participate in the legislative process and rammed it through the House in the summer of 2009.

They sent the legislation to the Senate, where it languished for over a year.

In the closing days of Congress, the Senate sent us its version of food safety legislation with an unconstitutional revenue measure, which effectively killed the bill. Then the House leadership won another closed rule, which prohibited any reasonable debate on the provisions of the legislation and sent it back to the Senate in a mammoth, irresponsible, long-term continuing resolution, which failed in the Senate.

So now the Senate sent its bill back to us as a free-standing measure. This time, it's stuffed into a Cash for Clunkers bill in order to once again bypass any reasonable debate. And here we are again with the same legislation negotiated outside of regular order. The Senate was originally unwilling to conduct a conference with the House, claiming there wasn't enough time. The Senate continues to offer its bill to us on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.

Mr. Speaker, we've had nearly a month in which this side of the aisle was ready, willing, and able to sit down and resolve our issues and to move forward. Unfortunately, the majority leadership in this season of giving has chosen to once again bypass the normal legislative process, exclude nearly every Member of this body, other than a select few in the Speaker's inner circle, and ram this legislation that, for all intents and purposes, could have been a bipartisan victory. Instead, what we're left with is another example of the sort of nonsense that the voters of America rejected just a few weeks ago. This is no way to do business, and our constituents were not subtle when they spoke last November.

Mr. Speaker, let me return to where I started. We have the safest food supply in the world. Anyone who follows current events knows that our food-producing system faces ongoing safety challenges. Unfortunately, neither this legislation nor the process by which it is being considered will address those challenges. Our Nation's farmers, ranchers, packers, processors, retailers and, most importantly, consumers deserve better.

I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this rule.

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