Monday, November 29, 2010

Food Safety Legislation Update

Welcome back after the Thanksgiving break.  Wanted to give you an update on where things stand regarding the Senate floor and the food safety bill (S. 510).  The Senate will reconvene this afternoon at 2:00 PM.  As Sen.-elect Kirk has (finally) received his certificate of election following his special election victory, he is scheduled to be sworn in at 5:30 this afternoon, bringing the state of the parties for the balance of the 111th Congress to 58 Democrats and independents compared to 42 Republicans.

At 6:30 PM, the Senate will vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the substitute amendment (#4715) to the food safety bill (S. 510).  If cloture is invoked, a previously propounded unanimous consent request allows for a total of five hours of additional debate on the four amendments below, followed by consideration of motions to suspend the rules regarding each:

Each of these motions to suspend will be subject to a 2/3rds majority to allow for consideration of the amendment.  If any motion to suspend is agreed to, the underlying amendment will be subject to a majority for adoption.

The schedule following the cloture vote this evening remains unclear, and staff should be aware that additional votes on motions to suspend and final passage could occur late this evening, depending on whether those votes are rolled to tomorrow.

As an FYI, the ONLY change to the substitute when compared to the manager’s package released in August is the addition of the modified Tester amendment language regarding small farms.  (I am not aware of a CBO score for the Harkin substitute as of yet; however, CBO did score the manager’s package back in August, and the changes made by the Tester amendment included in the substitute may not have a budgetary impact.)