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Congress does (or sometimes doesn’t do) some serious stuff.
For example, this week the Senate blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act. Congress investigated ethics violations and tried to negotiate a deal on student loan interest rates. Whether or not you agree with these actions, they’re pretty legit, right?
However, Congress is also responsible for taking care of some less serious business.
Just this week, a bipartisan group of Massachusetts Senators and Representatives teamed up to create the Cranberry Caucus. They’ve been joined by their Wisconsin colleagues in the effort to
promote the industry and help lobby for exemptions from food-labeling rules that could depict cranberry products as unhealthy
The cranberry industry, which employs many of its workers from – yep you guessed it! – Wisconsin and Massachusetts, is concerned that cranberry juice will be lumped in with other sugary drinks that are the target of greater regulation and labeling requirements. Unsweetened cranberry juice, they explain
is too tart for mass consumption, which means the fruit requires an infusion of sugar to make it palatable.
Therefore, the industry argues, cranberry juice should be a category of its own and be exempt from such regulations. And lucky for them, now they’ve got a Congressional caucus to advocate for them!