Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and 70 other members of Congress, mostly Democrats, got perfect grades from advocacy group Food Policy Action for their votes on food and agriculture issues over the past two years. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and Rep Tom Cotton, the Republican candidate for Senate in Arkansas, were among three dozen lawmakers who scored zero. “This scorecard is food policy to go,” said Ken Cook, chairman of the FPA board, in a statement.
The ratings were based on six rollcalls and support of eight bills in the Senate and 18 rollcalls and 12 bills in the House. They included votes on the $500 billion farm bill, labeling of GMO food, cuts in food stamps, caps on farm subsidy payments and eligiblility limits for subsidized crop insurance, among others.
Florida Rep Steve Southerland, who proposed the steepest cuts in food stamps in a generation, got a score of 11 from FPA. He is the group’s top target for defeat. House Agriculture Committee chairman Frank Lucas scored 17 and Collin Peterson, the Democratic leader on the committee, 39. Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow and her Republican counterpart, Thad Cochran, each got a 50.