Why the Food Safety Bill isn't really safe

Why the Food Safety Bill isn't really safe

By Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)

The Food Safety Bill (S. 510) started out with the best intentions, to make our food supply safer. Unfortunately, even with the best intentions many in Congress will use any excuse to grow government and spend recklessly.

As a conservative on the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee I initially supported the Food Safety bill. At the time, I was clear that the bill needed significant improvements and if it did not continue to improve that I would stop supporting the bill. I hoped to use my cosponsorship to steer this legislation away from the big government expansion that I feared it would become. I made it clear that if there was a huge price tag to taxpayers that I would not support the bill.

That’s regrettably what happened. After the bill was approved by the committee, the legislation did not improve. It expands the federal workforce by the thousands. The federal workforce should be capped, which is why I introduced legislation this year to do exactly that. In addition this bill has a price tag of $1.5 billion, we simply cannot afford that. We need to balance the budget not continue to spend. Because of these concerns, I have voted against this legislation not once, but twice.

see the complete comments by Senator Orrin Hatch at the Glenn Beck website


I will continue to oppose this bill. We need to return to the principles that make our country great: a limited federal government and balancing our federal budget by cutting spending.