As The Fine Print covered on Tuesday, the Senate passed a bill that would expand the powers of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and better protect Americans from unsafe food.

Or did they?

It seems the Senate bill has run afoul of the pesky United States Constitution which requires that tax bills originate in the House. Section 107 of the Senate bill charges fees to food facilities to help pay for increased FDA inspections. The House passed a food safety bill in 2009, but that version differs from the Senate version in certain key areas. The Hill has more:

Two senior leadership aides confirmed the bill the Senate approved, 73-25, inadvertently contained tax provisions that, under the Constitution, must originate in the House of Representatives. That means the bill must be passed a second time by the Senate, giving critics such as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) another chance to block it. […]

While the changes themselves might not be too complicated, the Senate will have a much tougher time passing the bill again. Coburn is expected to object to passage by unanimous consent, as he has in the past, and Senate Republican leaders say their caucus won't vote on any bills until the expiring tax cuts are dealt with. 

Because time is running out on the 111th Congress, the plan had been to send the Senate version over to the House, at which point the House would forget about its own version, pass the Senate version, and send the bill to President Obama for his signature. Now, things have become much messier.

It is unclear how such a serious oversight occurred. Did Senate leaders and staff believe that their original plan, in which the two different versions were to be resolved in a joint conference, would take care of the problem? Did they not consider the fees to be taxes? Why didn’t someone in the House speak up?

Of course, it never should have come to all this. In the rush-rush atmosphere of the lame-duck Congress, blunders are bound to occur. Had the Senate taken care of this bill, which has significant bipartisan support, months ago, there would have been ample time to resolve problems. Instead, Americans are close to missing out on the food safety reform they deserve. If you need some comic relief after digesting this news, check out last night’s episode of The Daily Show.