Feedstuffs | Jan. 26, 2004 | Issue 4 | Volume 76
Senate passes spending spending bill; COOL delayed two
year
WASHINGTON, D.C. - On its second try last week, the Senate passed the $820 billion omnibus spending bill, which includes a two-year delay in mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL).
The bill funds $328 billion in spending for fiscal 2004 domestic programs in seven agencies, including $17 billion in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A 4. 1 % pay raise for federal non-military employees was in the bill as well as appropriations for mandatory spending on domestic nutrition programs and conservation programs. The bill included nearly 8,000 "earmarks" for projects in the states - the issue that pushed its approval.
The Senate passed the bill on a 65-28 vote after forestalling a filibuster attempt on a 61-32 vote. Republicans refused to renegotiate the bill after falling 12 votes short last Tuesday of blocking a filibuster by Sen. Tom Daschle (D., S.D.).
At first blush, the vote appeared to be a defeat for COOL, but Senate backers said they had a deal with the Senate's leadership to take the labeling language up again in the near future.
Sen. Mike Enzi (R., Wyo.) said he and Sen. Craig Thomas (R., Wyo.) and Daschle "won the assurance from Senate leader Bill Frist (R., Tenn.) and Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Ted Stevens (R., Alaska) that we will take up COOL again soon. I believe we will win in the end. We will not quit until we resolve this issue."
However, in the House and in the Bush Administration, there is strong support for delaying the program until Congress has time to assess its costs and impacts on the industry. COOL proponents view the delay as nothing less than a disguise for an attempt to kill the controversial proposal.
In a Jan. 20 letter to Enzi, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman supported the two-year delay, noting Congress needed "additional time to address the impacts of these requirements."
Rep. Henry Bonilla (R., Texas) told Ft. Worth's Star-Telegram after the Senate vote Jan. 22 that COOL would be "disastrous" and said Congressional study was needed.
Bonilla authored the amendment for the delay, which ended up being slipped onto the bill in the House/Senate conference.
The two-year delay will apply only to red meats, fruits and vegetables and peanuts. Both farm- and wild-raised fish are still subject to the September 2004 deadline.
While the Bush Administration did not support COOL in the farm bill and supported the delay in the fiscal 2004 appropriations bill, Veneman testified pointedly at a House Agriculture Committee hearing that "USDA has not missed a single deadline" in implementing COOL.
She noted that in spite of the debate on the two-year delay, USDA has moved ahead on the final rule for the mandatory COOL program.
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