Food Safety Bill May Not be Constitutional
Talking Points Memo reports:
In what amounts to an epic constitutionality #fail, Senate Democrats may have blown their chances to see their food safety bill signed into law.
The U.S. constitution requires that any revenue-raising bill must originate in the House of Representatives. To honor this provision, the Senate often finds a discarded old House bill, strips it bare, and uses it as a "shell" and passes it back to the House.
They somehow forgot to do that this time.
Now House and Senate Democratic leaders are scrambling to figure out some procedural hocus-pocus that will allow them each to pass identical pieces of legislation before they leave for the holidays.
At his press conference this morning, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer could barely contain his frustration.
"Unfortunately, [the Senate] passed a bill which is not consistent with the Constitution of the United States, so we are going to have to figure out how to do that consistent with the constitutional requirement that revenue bills start in the House," Hoyer said.
According to Hoyer, this has happened multiple times this Congress, causing severe legislative angina.
