But why would they bother? The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry has been working on its own farm bill, S. 2302, called "The Food and Energy Security Act." On Tuesday, Nov 6, the text of this bill was introduced for debate as an amendment/replacement of the House version.

Assuming the Senate passes its own version, both bills will go to conference committee, where a few members of the House and Senate will iron out differences in the two bills before offering a final version for both chambers to vote on.

None of this is unusual. It's how a bill becomes a law.

Just one thing: the House version is 860 pages long. If that sounds ridiculous, well,the Senate version is 1362 pages. That's a 502-page difference in length alone.

One major difference between the two bills is Section 10305, found only in the Senate version. In it, Congress recognizes and makes rules for the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) for the first time. Section 10305 is vague at best, and NAIS is a dangerous and costly program. We urge you to tell Congress to remove Section 10305 from the Senate's farm bill, and to stop the Department of Agriculture from implementing or promoting the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

But NAIS is not the only problem; every difference between the two bills will affect you. Obscure provisions buried in the bill will determine how much the government spends and how much you are taxed. They will determine the prices on the store shelves and at the pump. That's why Congress should not be allowed to rubber-stamp such gigantic bills. And they wouldn't, if we had the Read the Bills Act.

We ask you to please tell Congress it has a duty to protect us as taxpayers and consumers. Tell them you don't appreciate mammoth legislation such as the Farm Bill. And tell them to introduce the Read the Bills Act.

The Read the Bills Act Coalition is another way to build support for the Read the Bills Act. To learn how your organization or website can join the coalition, go here.

This week we welcome two new members to the Coalition:

Positive Liberty

TruthRealm

Finally, as further evidence why we need the RTBA, last week the House passed 16 bills and 326 pages of legislation, and the Senate passed 9 bills amounting to 437 pages. A list of the bills is available at the end of the blog version of this Dispatch.

Thank you for being a DC Downsizer.

James Wilson

Assistant to the President

DownsizeDC.org, Inc.

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

is the official email list of DownsizeDC.org, Inc. & Downsize DC Foundation

CONTRIBUTE to the Electronic Lobbyist project

http://www.DownsizeDC.org is sponsored by DownsizeDC.org, Inc. -- a non-profit educational organization promoting the ideas of individual liberty, personal responsibility, free markets, and small government.

You are encouraged to forward this message to friends and business associates, and permission is hereby granted to reproduce any items herein as long as attribution is provided for articles and the subscription instructions above are included.