Senate Passes Food Safety Bill in Surprise Vote

The Senate surprised the political world by passing a revision to its food safety bill last night by unanimous consent. The Senate originally passed the bill 73-25, but it had been in limbo thanks to a technical snafu that stepped on the House’s constitutional tax-writing powers. Democrats scrambled to revise the bill, originally attaching it to an omnibus spending bill. Republicans shot that down to keep the spending bill clean, the Hill reports, but they agreed to pass it by unanimous consent instead. (More food safety stories.)