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Industry bought Congressional votes to pass S. 510 food safety bill
Industry bought Congressional votes to pass S. 510 food safety bill
Despite an incredible outpouring of public opposition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "Food Safety Modernization Act", or S. 510, the Senate voted 73 to 25 to pass the bill anyway. And data presented by Maplight.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, shows that big industry groups and large food producers spent millions of dollars buying off Congressmen to garner support for it.
According to the site, Senators that ended up supporting the bill received nearly $10 million in political contributions from interest groups that also supported the bill. This amount was more than four times as much as groups opposed to the bill spent on overall contributions.
Some of the supporters of S. 510 that made these significant monetary contributions in order to buy support for the bill include Kraft Foods North America, the American Beverage Association, General Mills, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, and the Snack Food Association.
Interestingly, the top four receivers of contributions from groups that supported the bill actually voted against it, most likely because they are all Republicans and the bill was authored by Democrat Richard Durbin. Even so, these include Sens. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) who received $503,700, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who received $415,899, Jon Kyl (R-AZ) who received $335,377, and Richard Burr (R-NC) who received $317,086.
The top receivers of contributions from groups that supported the bill, and who ended up voting in favor of it, include Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) who received $301,776, Ben Nelson (D-NE) who received $245,906, Charles Schumer (D-NY) who received $179,435, and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) who received $149,278.
