Food Policy Action Publishes Scorecard on Food Votes in Congress

WASHINGTON A group has published a scorecard to rate Capitol Hill lawmakers on crucial votes that relate to food, reflecting 18 votes in the Senate and 14 in the House on issues ranging from food labeling and farm subsidies to hunger and food safety.

Food Policy Action (FPA), a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., believes its National Food Policy Scorecard will provide more transparency as to how lawmakers are voting on food-related issues.

"Greater transparency is the right recipe for food policies that improve Americans' diets, feed hungry kids and protect family farmers and the nation's food supply," said Tom Colicchio, a founding board member of the group and owner of Craft Restaurants.

FPA analysts identified 50 lawmakers with a perfect score of 100 percent. Nearly all of the "good food champions" listed in a press release were Democrats except for Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, an Independent and former Democrat.

Some Republicans, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., received the lowest scores.

Senators received an average score of 58 while lawmakers in the House fared nearly the same with an average score of 57 percent.

Some of the votes included in the score calculations included proposals to cut nutrition assistance, boost food-safety funding and permit states to label genetically engineered food.

"While many of us have begun voting with our forks, too few of us have been voting with our votes," said Ray Offenheiser, a member of FPA's board and president of Oxfam America. "That's about to change. Now legislators will think twice about casting votes in Congress to protect the narrow interests of well-heeled lobbyists above the will of people in their districts and hungry people around the world. The FPA will be keeping an eye on our elected leaders on behalf of the voters who sent them to Washington."