Lyndsey Layton
-- A bill that would overhaul the nation's food-safety laws for the first time since the Great Depression came roaring back to life Sunday as Senate Democrats struck a deal with Republicans that helped overcome a technical mistake made three weeks ago and a filibuster threat that seemed likely to scuttle the legislation.
After a weekend of negotiations, tense strategy sessions and several premature predictions about the bill's demise, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, reached a deal with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, that the GOP would not filibuster.
Without notice and in a matter of minutes Sunday evening, the Senate approved the bill by unanimous consent, sending it to the House, where passage is expected. President Barack Obama has said he would sign the legislation, which would give the government far-reaching authority to set and enforce safety standards for farmers and food processors.
It was a last-minute change for the legislation, which seemed all but dead Sunday afternoon.
"This reaffirmed my faith in democracy," said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union. "We were getting ready for a last-ditch effort . . . and they just went ahead an passed it, like they should have . . . There's some hope now that the government will do a better job of protecting people" from tainted food.
The legislation would affect all whole and processed foods except meat, poultry and some egg products, which are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Sen. Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, a main sponsor of the bill, called Sunday's vote a "critical victory" that would "give Americans one of the best holiday gifts they can receive this year -- the assurance the foods they are eating are safer."
The measure had support from an eclectic array of groups across the political spectrum from the Chamber of Commerce to U.S. PIRG and was pushed by a coalition of food-safety groups that lobbied for two years. It passed the House more than a year ago with strong bipartisan support. It cleared the Senate three weeks ago by a vote of 73 to 25, overcoming a filibuster threat from Sen. Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma.
But the day after the Senate vote, House leaders flagged a problem -- the Senate version appeared to violate a constitutional provision that requires new taxes to originate in the House rather than the Senate.
The section in question would have imposed fees on importers, farmers and food processors whose food is recalled because of contamination. The mistake essentially nullified the Senate vote.