Just prior to recessing for the traditional summer break, Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced bipartisan legislation to address the high fees retailers, including food stores and restaurants, pay to process credit card transactions. Their bill would inject added competition for the credit card market that is dominated by Visa and Mastercard. If the bill is enacted, the new legislation would give retailers and restaurants additional options to process credit cards with the result of lowering processing fees. The proposed bill is like legislative action undertaken a dozen years ago for processing debit card transactions which was also championed by Senator Durbin. But don’t think necessarily that what was good for the debit card industry will be good for the credit card industry. There are many differences between the way debit and credit cards are processed that will not make this bill a slam-dunk.
The huge influx of credit and debit card offers sent to the American public in the U.S. mail is understandable as these offers create tremendous money-making opportunities for banks. I get dozens of solicitations a month in my mail as I am sure you do too. When a customer uses a credit card, the merchant must pay card-related fees, including an often-called interchange fee to the card issuer and a network fee to Visa or Mastercard. Obviously, the banks and major card networks are against the legislation and love the status quo but food industry groups like FMI and NGA strongly support it. Bottom line: the bill would end the practice of merchants generally having to route the payments through the Visa or Mastercard network. Merchants would then be allowed to route payments through an unaffiliated network with lower fees.
Jennifer Hatcher, chief public policy officer and senior vice president of FMI – The Food Industry Association, said “Requiring more than one routing network would bring down the cost of swipe fees, increase transparency for retailers accepting credit card payments, and encourage competition on innovative services and fraud protection.” Atlanta-based payments consulting firm CMSPI reported that competition in credit card processing could save merchants and customers $11 billion or more annually. The federal law enacted in 2010 similarly required routing choice for debit cards and has saved merchants an estimated $9.4 billion a year, with 70 percent of the savings passed along to consumer, the Merchants Payments Coalition said.
Help Wanted
It goes without saying that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) supports the retail food and drug industry in a variety of ways including through offering many training and educational programs and, of course, through a myriad of rules and regulations. As part of a new FDA grant program, the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) is conducting a comprehensive assessment to identify retail food safety regulatory training and resource needs so the FDA and the food industry can better work together. NEHA has asked for help in the process and is inviting retailers (i.e. – your retail food safety experts) to take a 20-minute anonymous survey to help assess and improve training and resources available to improve food safety.
The needs assessment is only for regulatory professionals who work in retail food. For more information, e-mail retailgrants@neha.org. You can also call, toll-free, (833) 575-2404 to provide input. Your participation will help FDA and the food industry work better in a cohesive way.
Retail Food Protection Seminar
FDA has announced that registration is open for the 2022 FDA Retail Food Protection Seminar to be held virtually September 19-22, 2022. Registration is free! The event is open to everyone interested in retail food safety and is always a well-attended conference.
This year’s seminar will have a focus on norovirus, including assessing employee health, investigating norovirus related foodborne illnesses, and implementing successful employee health intervention strategies. Go to www.fda.gov/retailfoodprotection for more information and to register.
Immigrant Farmworkers Needed
It is a known fact that American farmers rely heavily on immigrant farmworkers, but because of restrictions on the numbers of immigrant workers that can enter the U.S., harvesting fruits and vegetables has been quite difficult because of severe labor shortages. Many other areas of food production have also been impacted including the crab processing industry in Maryland. Last month House Republicans joined business and agriculture leaders to urge the Senate to approve bipartisan legislation that would expand access to the workforce for immigrant farmers.
The Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed the House of Representatives earlier this year. The House Republicans have said overhauling the U.S. agricultural guest workers visa program and providing better access to green cards would help curb inflation and decrease domestic food costs. Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) have been working on a Senate version of the bill. Stay tuned.
What Are GMOs?
Last month the FDA released new “Feed Your Mind” educational materials to provide science-based information on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for consumer, health educators, dietitians and other health care professionals. Certainly, while GMOs processed in the foods we eat are not new technology, they are still not fully understood by consumers. While the “Feed Your Mind” project was originally introduced two years ago by the FDA, new materials have just been created which should be helpful for those of you who write and publish your own in-house educational GMO consumer affairs materials and want the very latest data.
The new materials include both electronic and printed educational aids and are available free upon request as funding is being provided courtesy of Congress. For more information, call 888-INFO-FDA.
What Happened To Recycling?
Recycling, especially bottles, cans and plastics was a big deal in the 1980s, and businesses, along with local, state and federal governments, got on the bandwagon to encourage and in many cases mandate recycling. But there have been a lot of ups and downs with recycling – costs have risen, commodity markets have collapsed, etc. And today’s recycling mandates have even moved in a new direction to address the reduction of food waste. This has all been good. But still, recycling in general has waned as more pressing needs face business and industry. Governments have learned too that recycling can be very expensive. Yet, environmentalists and the recycling industries have remained steadfast in their mission to encourage recycling and reducing wastes.
Now, the waste and recycling industry is urging the House to follow the Senate’s lead and enact new legislation to get recycling back in the mainstream. Late in July, the Senate passed two bills aimed at increasing recycling in the U.S. Enacted was the Recycling and Composting Accountability Act and the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act. Both are aimed at improving the economics of recycling. The National Waste and Recycling Association and the Plastics Industry Association applauded passage of the bipartisan bills and called for the House to “move swiftly to pass these bills,” which they said, “will advance America’s domestic recycling infrastructure and capabilities.”
Inflation Reduction Act
I usually try not to comment on Congressional news that is played up on page 1 of the daily press as hopefully you are well-versed on such topics as federal budgets and executive actions. However, the passage last month by Congress of the Inflation Reduction Act warrants a comment, in my opinion. The bill’s party-line vote was expected, so nothing new there. However, the act’s passage is the largest deficit reduction law in more than a decade and will decrease long-term deficits while still enacting several major new policies related to agriculture, energy, climate, health care and the tax code. We still have $24 trillion in debt and still depend too much on borrowing money, so there is more work to be done. This new bill is a major first step. Let’s hope there are more steps ahead so that our policy makers pledge to pay for their policies up-front and thus not depend on future generations to foot the bills. Who can argue with that? Yes, I know that everyone on the Hill and probably some of my readers are not happy with the bill but, again, it is a start to address some needed change.
Barry Scher is associated with the public policy firm of Policy Solutions LLC and can be reached at Bscher@policy-solutions.net.
