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The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on a "cheeseburger bill." The bill -- the Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act (HR 339 [5]) -- would bar lawsuits against fast-food outlets accused of causing obesity. Majority Leader Tom DeLay's spokesperson explained: "We have a guns-and-butter strategy...[favoring] narrow bills that highlight Democratic ties to special-interest trial lawyers." The bill is partially in response to a failed lawsuit filed by two New York teenagers against McDonald's -- which, incidentally, just ended "Supersize" options [6]. The tobacco, booze and food industry front group Center for Consumer Freedom [7] has applauded similar state-level measures [8].
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[1] http://dev.prwatch.org/users/6/diane-farsetta
[2] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/health/food-safety
[3] http://dev.prwatch.org/topics/politics
[4] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.prwatch.org%2Fspin%2F2004%2F03%2F2462%2Ftorte-reform&linkname=Torte%20Reform
[5] http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c108:15:./temp/~c108PYoODV::
[6] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26082-2004Mar3.html
[7] http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Center_for_Consumer_Freedom
[8] http://consumerfreedom.com/headline_detail.cfm?HEADLINE_ID=2392
[9] http://thehill.com/news/030404/cheeseburger.aspx