Horse Slaughter Ban Bill
Hmmmm
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/15537268.htm
Clerical error in House sends wrong horse-slaughter bill to Senate
By Todd J. Gillman
The Dallas Morning News
(MCT)
WASHINGTON - The House voted overwhelmingly last week to shut down
the horse meat industry. But the wrong version of the bill is
pending in the Senate - one that would allow existing
slaughterhouses in Texas and Illinois to continue operating.
The problem apparently occurred when a House clerk delivered the
wrong version of the bill to the Senate.
The House agreed Thursday night - quietly, without debate or a roll
call vote - to ask the Senate to return the bill so it could send
back the right version.
It's a relatively unusual request, but clerical errors do happen,
and lawmakers expect it to be rectified without much ado. The Senate
wasn't in session when the request formally arrived Friday, so the
Senate's first chance to comply will be Monday, according to the
Senate parliamentarian's office.
"People are human. That's why pencils have erasers," said Kevin
Madden, spokesman for House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-
Ohio. "This thing's all been taken care of."
Nancy Perry, vice president of government affairs at the Humane
Society of the United States, said she wasn't worried.
"Someone just made a mistake and sent the wrong bill over to the
Senate . . . It's either been fixed or it's being fixed," she said.
More worrisome for horse slaughter opponents is that there are only
a few weeks of legislative work remaining this year.
The ban would affect slaughterhouses in Illinois, Fort Worth and
Kaufman, Texas, that processed more than 90,000 horses last year for
export to France, Belgium, Japan and other countries.
The House Agriculture Committee overwhelmingly opposed the ban, and
had blocked legislation for years. But a wide majority of House
members wanted to shut down the industry. So House leaders arranged
for it to come to the floor via the energy and commerce committee,
while also giving the agriculture panel the chance to amend it.
The agriculture panel tacked on several poison provisions: to let
existing plants keep operating, to make the U.S. Agriculture
Department responsible for unwanted horses, and to force the
government to buy horses from owners who couldn't find another
buyer. The original bill, without those changes, was the one debated
and approved Sept. 7.
But it was the amended bill that was hand-delivered to the Senate.
"It's a confusing process," said Alise Kowalski, spokeswoman for the
House Agriculture Committee.
One former House aide who has tracked the issue said the snafu could
make it harder to get the bill passed before Congress recesses.