Farm bill out of House Ag Committee with COOL
Friday, July 20, 2007, 10:27 AM
by Peter Shinn
To the applause and cheers of its members, the House Ag Committee unanimously approved its version of the farm bill Thursday night, sending the measure to the House floor for approval. Lawmakers also brokered an eleventh-hour deal on rules to implement mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for meat.
A clearly relieved Committee Chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota offered thanks to all who had worked on the measure. And he seemed mildly surprised the farm bill committee process was actually complete.
"To say that I'm pleased to be at this point is an understatement," Peterson said, evoking much laughter from lawmakers and others in attendance. "There were many nights at three in the morning when I didn't think we'd ever get here."
The House version of the farm bill largely keeps the 2002 commodity title as is, though with some adjustments to loan rates. It also tightens payment limits and will allow producers to opt into a revenue based counter-cyclical program.
The bill approved by the House Ag Committee also contains additional funding for nutrition and the fruit and vegetable industry. It also continues a price support system for the dairy industry, though the focus of the system is shifted to individual dairy products. The Milk Income Loss Compensation (MILC) program is extended under the House version of the farm bill and it also includes language aimed at expediting requests to change federal milk marketing orders.
But will it pass the full House without major changes? Peterson defended the measure.
"You know, we have a good bill that's going to be good for agriculture, good for America and we all should be proud," Peterson said.
Under the agreement reached between the meat industry and National Farmers Union on COOL, cattle and hogs will fall into a menu of potential labels, with those animals that are obviously born raised and slaughtered in America labeled as exclusively U.S. product. Cattle born before October 1st of next year reportedly will be grandfathered in to the scheme and won’t be subject to any COOL verification. And perhaps most importantly, the deal doesn't call for any additional new record keeping by livestock producers.
A source familiar with the talks said mandatory COOL supporters were represented by National Farmers Union President Tom Buis, while Randy Russell, a top USDA official in the Reagan administration who has been an ag industry lobbyist for more than two decades, spoke for the meat industry. Jay Truitt, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said the resulting deal on COOL is a good one as far as NCBA is concerned.
"We think that it keeps the basic intent that we were looking for ought of this whole negotiating process," Truitt said, "which is, number one, to eliminate the burden from producers, you know, in order to actually get a label on product at the end of the day."
The entire farm bill, including the compromise on COOL, must still be passed not only by the full House, but by the Senate as well. The Senate Agriculture Committee hasn't yet marked up its version of the farm bill.
But the Senate did take some action on COOL yesterday, too, when the Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the ag spending bill for fiscal year 2008. Among other things, the measure includes a provision pushed by South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson that establishes benchmarks for USDA’s implementation of mandatory COOL and reaffirms the program will take effect on September 30th, 2008.
Friday, July 20, 2007, 10:27 AM
by Peter Shinn
To the applause and cheers of its members, the House Ag Committee unanimously approved its version of the farm bill Thursday night, sending the measure to the House floor for approval. Lawmakers also brokered an eleventh-hour deal on rules to implement mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for meat.
A clearly relieved Committee Chairman Collin Peterson of Minnesota offered thanks to all who had worked on the measure. And he seemed mildly surprised the farm bill committee process was actually complete.
"To say that I'm pleased to be at this point is an understatement," Peterson said, evoking much laughter from lawmakers and others in attendance. "There were many nights at three in the morning when I didn't think we'd ever get here."
The House version of the farm bill largely keeps the 2002 commodity title as is, though with some adjustments to loan rates. It also tightens payment limits and will allow producers to opt into a revenue based counter-cyclical program.
The bill approved by the House Ag Committee also contains additional funding for nutrition and the fruit and vegetable industry. It also continues a price support system for the dairy industry, though the focus of the system is shifted to individual dairy products. The Milk Income Loss Compensation (MILC) program is extended under the House version of the farm bill and it also includes language aimed at expediting requests to change federal milk marketing orders.
But will it pass the full House without major changes? Peterson defended the measure.
"You know, we have a good bill that's going to be good for agriculture, good for America and we all should be proud," Peterson said.
Under the agreement reached between the meat industry and National Farmers Union on COOL, cattle and hogs will fall into a menu of potential labels, with those animals that are obviously born raised and slaughtered in America labeled as exclusively U.S. product. Cattle born before October 1st of next year reportedly will be grandfathered in to the scheme and won’t be subject to any COOL verification. And perhaps most importantly, the deal doesn't call for any additional new record keeping by livestock producers.
A source familiar with the talks said mandatory COOL supporters were represented by National Farmers Union President Tom Buis, while Randy Russell, a top USDA official in the Reagan administration who has been an ag industry lobbyist for more than two decades, spoke for the meat industry. Jay Truitt, Vice President of Government Affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said the resulting deal on COOL is a good one as far as NCBA is concerned.
"We think that it keeps the basic intent that we were looking for ought of this whole negotiating process," Truitt said, "which is, number one, to eliminate the burden from producers, you know, in order to actually get a label on product at the end of the day."
The entire farm bill, including the compromise on COOL, must still be passed not only by the full House, but by the Senate as well. The Senate Agriculture Committee hasn't yet marked up its version of the farm bill.
But the Senate did take some action on COOL yesterday, too, when the Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the ag spending bill for fiscal year 2008. Among other things, the measure includes a provision pushed by South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson that establishes benchmarks for USDA’s implementation of mandatory COOL and reaffirms the program will take effect on September 30th, 2008.