Senators vow to block republican bill to allow poisoned candy

Article: News - Senators vow to block food-safety bill

• WASHINGTON – With a bowl of lead-contaminated Mexican candy on the table between them, California's senators vowed this morning to do all they can to prevent a bill that would require national rules for food safety from passing.

The National Uniformity for Food
Act, said Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats,
would gut the food safety protections included in California's
Proposition 65, passed 20 years ago,

The bill, authored by Sen.
Richard Burr, R-N.C., would ban states from setting requirements or
posting warnings on foods that differed from federal rules.

"This
bill is a major assault on California's initiative," Feinstein said at
a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing. "On behalf
of my colleague Senator Boxer and I, if this bill were to come to the
floor, we would use every parliamentary device available to us to stop
it."

Proposition 65 requires warning labels on products containing chemicals known to cause cancer or harm the reproductive system.