The most dangerous place on earth is usually anywhere between Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and a TV camera. And the New York Democrat has never met a government regulation that he not only didn’t like, but positively loves.
Until now.
Sen. Schumer told a news conference on Friday about the regulation that finally has his ire.
“Sometimes Washington does things that make the rest of America scratch their heads in wonderment and say, ‘What the heck are they doing down there?,'” Schumer said.
Washington does things like that every day, only Schumer is usually instigating it.
The regulation that Chuck doesn’t love? One from the Food and Drug Administration that would regulate “spent grain.” Spent grain is a by-product of the brewing process, which breweries recycle for animal feed. The FDA’s proposed regulations would send 19 million pounds of it straight to landfills instead, claiming that the grain is unhealthy for animals. Sending the spent grain to landfills will end up driving up costs for breweries.
The regulation comes from the 2011 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. It was sponsored by Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin (IL) in the Senate and by Democrat Rep. Betty Sutton (OH) in the House. President Obama signed it on January 4, 2011. The bill passed the Senate by voice vote, meaning neither Schumer nor anyone else rose to oppose it. In all likelihood, they never even read it.
The regulation, according to Schumer, may cost beer makers $50 million, and have a serious impact on smaller brewers of fashionable micro-brews. That cost will surely be passed on to beer drinkers.
The Foundry has more.
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