The Enrolled Senate version of the Food Safety Modernization Act (S-510 ES) is back in play.

Please see our post of December 7 for a discussion of the constitutional error made in the Senate on voting out S-510 ES.

The House has now accepted (by a vote of 212-206) a Continuing Resolution which funds the federal government through September 2011. The Enrolled Senate version has been attached to the Continuing Resolution, thus curing the constitutional violation of the requirement that all revenue raising provisions originate in the House. Readers should note that the vote of 212-206 was on the CR and not specifically on S-510 ES.

Therefore, it is now appropriate to begin detailed study of the textual differences between S-510 ES and HR 2749.

What we have, of course is a somewhat weakened version of HR-2749 which House Democrats have accepted in order to move forward on food safety.

Please see the final GPO issued text of S-510 ES which is posted as a PDF file on our December 7 posting below.

If the measure passes in the Senate and is signed by the president, we will then post the final text after its issuance by the GPO. Readers should always be aware that the definitive text is the GPO issued version.

You will now see many articles in the press attempting to tell you what to think about this legislation which now appears to have an enhanced prospect of reaching President Obama’s desk.  Professionals, lawyers especially, have learned to read the complete text several times before venturing any comments. After the legislation is signed and after this this author has submitted his article to Agricultural Law Update, I will also post my detailed comments as a White Paper on this weblog.

Meanwhile, Mary Clare Jalonick writing in the San Francisco Chronicle deserves credit from first having broken this story:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/12/08/national/w052231S68.DTL

It is unfortunate that Ms. Jalonick’s excellent December 8 article has been copied without attribution by so many other “journalists”.

For a contrarian’s view on the subject readers may enjoy Jeremy Bloom, writing in Red, Green & Blue:

http://redgreenandblue.org/2010/12/09/is-the-food-safety-bill-a-blessing-or-a-corporatist-curse/