bill to stop shipping wine from winery WHAAA???

the following came from my fave winery...who the HELL is behind this bill!!!! Now may have to join tea party as this just hits too close to home! (no...couldn't ever...but am PO'D!)


Your right to receive wine directly from the winery is being seriously threatened! A bill is presently before Congress which proposes to take away the fair trade shipping rights the wine industry worked so hard to pass. Though we still can't ship to all 50 states, should this bill pass, we would not be able to ship to anyone outside of California. The proposed legislation would affect any wine ordered from a winery, irrespective of where it is being shipped. It would not matter if the order was placed through our tasting room, online, over the phone, or via the wine club. All wines produced outside your resident state would have to go through the "three-tier system" which involves wholesale wine distributors as the middlemen, and they typically do not carry small boutique wines.

This is a big deal, and we need your help to raise awareness in your community and to
write to your Congressional representatives.

Wondering what to do?

1. Write to your Congressmen. It is important that Members of Congress from all across the country hear from consumers as to why H.R. 5034 is bad for them. We encourage you to visit www.freethegrapes.org - HOT TOPICS - Defeat HR5034 - where you may personalize a letter to your congressional representatives. Free the Grapes is a consumer activist group which was originally started by the Napa Valley Vintners to advocate on behalf of consumers and reduced shipping regulations for wine.

2. Please forward our email to everyone you know and ask them to write to their Congressmen.

3. Post your comments on Facebook. You may add your comments to the hundreds already posted on the STOP HR 5034 Facebook site. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/STOPHR5034/114589208561336)

Please don’t wait, take action now and protect your right to
drink the wines you choose!

RH.R.5034 – Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness (CARE) Act of 2010. Sponsors are Rep. Bill Delehunt (D) MA; Rep. Howard Coble (R) NC; Rep. Mike Quigley (D) IL; Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R) UT

pronto. Good work

association.This sounds like it might be a lobbyist written bill.

They want their cut of ALL the action.

Mr. DELAHUNT (for himself, Mr. COBLE, Mr. CHAFFETZ, and Mr. QUIGLEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.5034:

Reading the bill, it's an attempt to get alcohol taxes paid on all wines sold within any state. That means cutting off direct shipments from wineries in other states, in effect, although the bill doesn't say that.

It's just another poorly thought out bill entered by somebody who saw a few bucks getting away from state coffers and who didn't think it through.

http://www.house.gov/delahunt/ His district also has a lot of boutique wineries, so his head is really up his ass on this one.

http://chaffetz.house.gov/ Utah. He sleeps on a cot. Guess he hasn't been in office long enough to boast about much else.

http://coble.house.gov/ Oh, dear.

http://quigley.house.gov/

These are the guys to contact about this one.

:-)

at gop meeting... recall that face. blech

Which suggests you might want to have a look at all of the facts, and not those the winery chose to tell you.

You may well agree with them. However, it could be worth an independent look-see.

Is to state a Congressional intent that will raise the burden against a challenge to state alcoholic regulations.

What sometimes happens is that state regulations are challenged on the basis that they interfere with interstate commerce. Since Congress has authority to regulate interstate commerce, the argument usually turns on whether Congress had, or had not, expressed an intent relevant to the state regulation in question.

The point of this bill is to put a section in the federal alcohol regulations that says, in so many words, "state regulations on alcohol should be given a high degree of deference if someone challenges their constitutionality."

So, it's not really correct that the bill adds any new tax or would prohibit shipping. What it does do is to say that state tax laws and shipping regulations should be given deference against a challenge.

So, really, the question is whether you believe that states should or should not have firm authority to regulate the importation of alcohol to them and to collect taxes on alcohol imports. It's another one of those areas where the internet is causing a loss of traditional revenue streams to states on the basis of sales taxes, etc.

Some people believe that it is essentially "tough luck" if states can't collect taxes on internet purchases, and some people believe that the states need to make up the revenue somehow. I guess its really a matter of how you feel about your state's financial situation.

It won't be "this bill" which stops shipments from your winery. It will be your state, depending on whether the winery complies with your state's regulations on shipping wine in.