Food supply control bill passes in surprise Sunday night vote

By Thomas Lifson

Like some horror movie zombie that can't be killed, S510, the federal power grab over family farms and the entire food production system passed the Senate in an unexpected Sunday night vote. Alexander Bolton of The Hill reports:

Reid's staff earlier in the day had told a coalition of groups supporting the legislation that it had a chance of passing but the prospects appeared to dim as Sunday wore on. The swift approval by unanimous consent caught some aides and lobbyists working on it by surprise.

Sen. Tom Coburn, the outspoken conservative Republican from Oklahoma, had been blocking the legislation. He lifted his objection at the final moment.

Why Senator Coburn reversed himself, enabling this bill, which empowers unelected bureaucrats to control family farms with regulations to be written later, is a mystery.

The bill now goes back to the lame duck House. A Congress repudiated by the voters may well enact this bad law, whose "unforeseen" consequences could be catastrophic for small growers and food processors.