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WASHINGTON - The GOP-controlled House on Wednesday voted to ban lawsuits that blame the food industry for people's expanding waistlines and health woes, saying such cases could bankrupt fast food chains and restaurants.
The 276-139 vote is intended to prevent suits that contend food companies and their supersize offerings are responsible for Americans' lurching toward obesity.
House Republicans have in recent years approved similar bills barring suits against the gun industry for gun crimes and against businesses for asbestos-related health problems. Not one measure has passed the closely divided Senate.
The White House endorsed the bill, which the Senate is not expected to pass this year. Democrats said the industry did not need the federal protection.
The debate came a day after the government said overeating could soon replace smoking as the No.1 preventable cause of death. Two out of three adults and 9-million children are overweight, the report said.
House Republicans said fast food franchises and mom-and-pop restaurants should not take the blame for the public's poor eating choices and lack of exercise. "Americans are eating themselves to death and looking for someone to blame," said Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif.
Republicans said that exposing the food industry to suits similar to those used against the tobacco industry could wreck the economy and make it more expensive to eat out. The industry employs almost 12-million people and is the nation's second-largest employer behind the government.
Most obesity claims have been dismissed in court. Last year, a federal judge in New York dismissed two class-action suits blaming McDonald's for making people fat.
"It protects an industry that doesn't need to be protected at this particular point and we're dealing with a problem that doesn't exist," said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass. "The problem that does exist is that we have an obesity problem in this country."
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Ric Keller, R-Orlando, would ban many obesity or weight-related claims. It would allow claims if laws had been broken and as a result a person gained weight.