William (B.J.) Lawson Help Stop the Food Safety Modernization Act

Uploaded on February 18, 2010 by Lawson for Congress © All rights reserved.

While we've been campaigning, Washington has still been working -- but not for us. Last year, a dangerous piece of legislation was passed by our House of Representatives -- the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. Despite the reassuring title, this Orwellian legislation will weaken local food producers and suppliers and make us even more dependent on an increasingly brittle and centralized food system. Our 24 year incumbent David Price voted for his lobbyist masters, and against the interests of his constituents, by helping to pass this legislation.

Our last chance to fight this assault on our freedom to feed ourselves and increase our local food security is to head off the Senate's dangerous companion legislation, The Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510).

Please visit the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's Web site today for more information on this bill, and contact information for Senators Burr and Hagan.

Regardless of where you live, please call or write your Senators today. Let them know in no uncertain terms that this legislation must not be passed.

The CFSA does an excellent job at relating the problems with this legislation -- it was written to serve the interests of industrial agriculture, and creates onerous regulatory burdens that will put smaller local/regional producers out of business and prevent new producers from contributing to our local foodsheds.

While the CFSA asks for this legislation to be amended, I believe it must simply be stopped. We must defeat S. 510, and prevent this misguided effort to further consolidate control in the hands of the largest producers.

As your Congressman, I will work to enact agricultural reforms to empower local producers and local foodsheds by restoring a free market economy for our food.

That means ending all agricultural subsidies, ending all taxation on the production of food, and permanently eliminating the estate tax/death tax -- all of which work against the interests of our local farmers and food producers.

A free market for the production of good nutrition will empower us to do a much better job of feeding ourselves, and make a meaningful impact on our health care crisis. As Moses would have said, "Let my people grow!"

TEXT CREDIT: Lawson for Congress

George LeMieux Efforts to stop NASA from Canceling Constellation

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator George LeMieux (R-FL) has launched an effort to prohibit NASA from terminating the Constellation Program, which is the follow on space program replacing the space shuttle. The amendment to the FAA Reauthorization bill introduced by LeMieux reiterates federal law prohibiting NASA from using funds in FY2010 to cancel Constellation contracts. Joining LeMieux in the effort are senators Roger Wicker (R-MS), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Bob Bennett (R-UT).

"NASA is ignoring the will of Congress by taking steps to terminate the Constellation program. This effort sends the clear message that there are no loopholes, exclusions, or other routes the agency can use to kill the program," said LeMieux. "The ultimate determination on the future of the space program rests with Congress, not a budget proposal submitted by the administration."

"The president's proposal to cut funding for the Constellation program would reverse nearly 50 years of U.S. space policy and would effectively end the United State's leadership role in space. His plan cannot be justified as a cost-saving measure, as some have suggested, because it simply transfers spending to other programs rather than cut spending overall," said Senator Sessions (R-AL). "A policy change of this magnitude-determining the future of U.S. manned space flight-should rest with Congress, and not be decided based solely on a budget proposal. This important amendment would block the president's effort to kill Constellation, and would clarify that NASA cannot end the program without Congress, which is accountable to the voters, affirmatively making that decision."

"It is disappointing that Congress must remind NASA to follow the requirements that I included in last year's consolidated appropriations bill, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama," said Senator Shelby (R-AL). "Changes cannot be made to the Constellation program without enacting a new law. I expect NASA to execute the plan accordingly."

Without Constellation, the United States will be reliant on Russia for any manned space missions. The amendment would also waive Anti-deficiency Act provisions cited by the Administrator as justification for setting aside funding and stalling additional work on Constellation. It also requires a study to review the contracts and prohibits any efforts to cancel contracts necessary for the support of the remaining shuttle flights. ###

Related Files:

• Nasa Amendment - NASA Amendment.pdf (479.5 KBs)