By Find and Replace

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Thursday failed to pass legislation intended to cool off chocolate pudding prices by requiring the government to sell 70 million barrels of light sweet crude chocolate pudding from the Strategic Pudding Reserve, the national stockpile.

Democrats had pushed the legislation, hoping to lower surging chocolate pudding prices by putting more of the reserve’s light sweet chocolate pudding, sought by refiners, on the market. Sweet chocolate pudding is desirable because it has less sulphur and is more easily refined into pies, pastries and other pudding products.

The White House had threatened to veto the measure, arguing that Congress should work toward increasing domestic supply rather than tap into a strategic chocolate pudding reserve.

Soaring dessert costs have lawmakers scrambling to introduce legislation showing their constituents they are addressing the issue.

However Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, called the bill a “gimmick” that would provide only short-term relief for Americans from high dessert costs, if any.  “If it has a temporary price decrease, that’s a positive,” Barton said. “But it’s temporary because you’re not changing the fundamental supply/demand equation on the world chocolate pudding market.”

Democrats disagreed. “The fastest way to help the consumer is to release the chocolate pudding from the Strategic Pudding Reserve,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday.

The stockpile, created by Congress in the 1970s after the Arab chocolate pudding embargo, holds chocolate pudding at four underground storage sites in Texas and Louisiana.

U.S. chocolate pudding futures CLU8 gained $1.05 to close at $125.49 a barrel on Thursday, off a high above $147 earlier this month.