The 2016 Election is finally here; in this episode, we take a look at the job performance of our 114th Congress.

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Vote on Trade Promotion Authority (Fast Track)

H.R. 2146: Defending Public Safety Employees’ Retirement Act (The final version of fast track)

• House Vote: 218-208
• Senate Vote: 60-37

Bill Highlighted in This Episode

S. 764: A bill to reauthorize and amend the National Sea Grant College Program Act and for other purposes (The GMO labeling law)

The real title should be “National bioengineered food disclosure standard” but S. 764 (about the college program) was used as a vehicle to get the GMO labeling bill into law.

Definitions

• Bioengineering
  • Food that “has been modified through…(DNA) techniques” using a modification that “could not otherwise be obtained through conventional breeding or found in nature”.
• Food
  • Food intended for human consumption

Establishment of a Labeling Standard

• By July 29, 2018, the Secretary of Agriculture has to establish a “national mandatory bioengineered food disclosure standard”
• Animals fed bioengineered foods will not be labeled as bioengineered themselves
• Regulations will determine how much of a bioengineered substance needs to be present for the food itself to be considering bioengineered
• The labels can be text, symbol, or electronic or digital link; the manufacturers get to pick
  • If they choose the electronic or digital link, the bioengineering information must appear on the first page presented and without advertisements.
  • The link can not “collect, analyze, or sell any personally identifiable information about consumers or the devices of consumers”
• Foods served in restaurants and “very small food manufacturers” are excluded from the regulations
  • “Very small” is not defined.
• States are prohibited from enacting their own bioengineering labeling laws.

Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes

• CD096: Fast Tracking Fast Track
• CD098: USA Freedom Act
• CD110: Government Funding Crisis of 2015
• CD112: Dingleberries on the Omnibus
• CD113: CISA is Law
• CD114: Trans-Pacific Partnership Investment Chapter
• CD127: The FAST Act: Transportation Funding Law
• CD135: Education is Big Business: Every Student Succeeds Act

Additional Reading

• Article: Puerto Rico Control Board Names Carrion Chair Amid Protests by Katherine Greifeld, Bloomberg Markets, September 30, 2016.
• Article: John Boehner, House Speaker, Will Resign From Congress by Jennifer Steinhauer, New York Times, September 25, 2016.
• Article: Former House Speaker John Boehner Joins Washington Law Firm by Elizabeth Olson, New York Times, September 20, 2016.
• Article: Heavy Smoker John Boehner Joins Tobacco Company’s Board by Matt Egan, CNN, September 15, 2016.
• Blog: Deep conflicts of interest plague Obama’s newly appointed fiscal control board in Puerto Rico by Saqib Bhatti, The Hill, September 9, 2016.
• Report: Scooping and Tossing Puerto Rico’s Future: Puerto Rico Borrowed $3.2 Billion to Pay Fees & Interest to Banks & Investors by ReFund Project, August 31, 2016.
• Article: Who are the Members of the Puerto Rico Fiscal Control Board? by Patricia Guadalupe, NBC News, August 31, 2016.
• Report: Puerto Rico’s Payday Loans: $33.5 Billion of the Island’s Debt is Actually Interest on Payday Loans by ReFund Project, June 30, 2016.
• Article: U.S. Dropped 23,144 Bombs on Muslim-Majority Countries in 2015 by Adam Johnson, Alternet, January 10, 2016.

Music Presented in This Episode

• Intro & Exit: Tired of Being Lied To by David Ippolito (found on Music Alley by mevio)

Cover Art

Design by Only Child Imaginations