House Passes Farm Bill

On July 27, 2007 the U.S. House of Representatives (the House) passed its version of the farm bill by a 231-191 vote after a brief consideration on the House floor. As Collin Peterson (D-MN), the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, stated, there is plenty in the bill to make some people happy and plenty to make some people unhappy which he believes indicates it is a pretty good bill. In fact, as the bill was reported from the Agriculture Committee, it did enjoy strong support from committee members of both parties. However, after the committee reported the bill to the House floor, controversy flared over additional funding for the nutrition programs that will result from imposing a tax on certain foreign-owned companies with U.S. subsidiaries. The House leadership decided it needed to increase the funding for nutrition programs to gain the support of more liberal members to fend off an amendment by Representatives Ron Kind (D-WI) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) that would have seriously cut farmers' income support payments. The controversy over the funding source imperiled passage of the bill when most Republicans decided to oppose the bill. Adding to this controversy is a veto threat issued by the White House because, in their view, the House bill did not go far enough in trimming subsidies. In the end, the bill passed with the support of 19 Republicans from agricultural areas.

The Senate will turn to its version of the farm bill after Labor Day and may not agree to use the same funding source used by the House for nutrition programs. This issue, along with other funding issues, most likely ensures a new farm bill will not be signed until late this Congressional session.

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL)

The House made significant progress toward resolving a major issue that has plagued the livestock industry when a deal was worked out on COOL, implementation of which has been delayed by a provision in an appropriations bill. Under the compromise, a retailer of beef, lamb, pork, and goat may designate the product as having a United States (U.S.) country of origin if the commodity is derived from an animal that was exclusively born, raised, and slaughtered in the United States, or was born and raised in Alaska or Hawaii and transported for a period of not more than 60 days through Canada to the United States and then slaughtered in the United States. For multiple countries of origin, a retailer may designate the country of origin of the...