Date:November 1, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Chase Carter
Executive Director
(402) 817-4443
carter@competitivemarkets.com
P.O. Box 6486 - Lincoln, NE 68506 - www.competitivemarkets.com  
     
     

Congressional Leaders Respond to Special Interests;
Further Delay Mandatory COOL
     
Lincoln, NE ~ The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) today expressed its deep disappointment in the decision by the joint House-Senate Conference Committee on the agriculture appropriations bill to delay the implementation of the Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) law for another two years.

The joint committee report, signed by a majority of Senate and House conferees, came on the evening of Wednesday, October 26, behind closed doors with no public debate.  Those standing in line to attend the conference committee meeting were not allowed to enter the room.  The report contains language that delays COOL implementation until September 30, 2008. 

“This is very disappointing.  What the conference committee has done borders on treason,” stated Keith Mudd, OCM President.  “Despite polls showing that consumers overwhelmingly support mandatory food labeling, lawmakers have caved in to special interest groups to virtually kill COOL.  While the appropriations bill delays implementation until September 2008, this move virtually kills the program because the new date is beyond the expiration date mandated by the 2002 Farm Bill.  The conference committee took this action despite a joint letter from 142 cattle, farm and consumer groups that represent millions of American people.  It’s unfortunate that debate did not take place in the light of day.  This closed-door process left little recourse for individual members of Congress who have supported COOL other than to vote up or down on the overall agricultural spending measure, ” noted Mudd.     

“Failure to support and implement such a simple and patriotic law simply makes no sense,” noted Randy Stevenson, OCM Vice-President.  “During the 2004 campaign, President Bush faced an Ohio audience concerned with the outsourcing of American jobs and told them to ‘look for label; buy American’.  Unfortunately, the conference committee and the Republican leadership has rendered that advice impossible to follow when it comes to food.”

Leading the effort to derail mandatory COOL were Congressmen Henry Bonilla (R-TX) and Roy Blunt (R-MO).  According to a report from Public Citizen Bonilla has received more than $167,000 from COOL opponents in the past three election cycles, making him their top beneficiary. 

Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee members Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sen, Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) chose not to sign the conference committee report.  “We commend those members of Congress who stayed the course with mandatory COOL,” said Mudd.  “However, we are deeply disappointed with the U.S. Congress as a whole.  American consumers have the right to know where their food comes from and American producers deserve the right to differentiate their product in the retail case.”

“OCM will press for greater congressional action and public debate over the matter,” noted Mudd.  “We will be working with other producer and consumer groups to develop strategy that will remove the debate over COOL from the secrecy of closed-door meetings and into the bright light of day.”
     

The Organization for Competitive Markets is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit public policy organization working for American food producers, consumers and rural communities.