Lawmakers have a relatively short timetable, expiring in mid-July, if they want to override quickly Vermont’s first-in-the-nation GMO food-labeling law, which goes into effect on Friday. While Senate Agriculture Committee leaders need to line up 60 votes to pass their compromise bill, possibly this week, the initial response in the House was cool.
Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo, sponsor of a House-passed bill to pre-empt state labeling laws, applauded Senate work “to build on the bipartisan work we did in the House” while saying he wanted to review the specific of the Senate bill. Pompeo’s bill, passed by a 3-to-1 margin, would keep labeling voluntary on the federal level, as it is now. The bill written by Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts also pre-empts states but mandates nationwide disclosure of GMO ingredients.
House Agriculture chairman Michael Conaway of Texas said he needed time to examine the Roberts-Stabenow bill “and the varied impacts, be they positive or negative, before stating my support or opposition.”
“Will the House go along? It’s murky,” Informa analyst Jim Wiesemeyer told AgWeb. If the House wants a different package than the Senate bill, it could be difficult to complete work before Congress adjourns for the summer, he said.
Only the Senate is in session this week; the House began its Independence Day recess last week. When both chambers return on July 5, they have less than two weeks for work before their scheduled departure, on July 15, for the summer. Work would resume after Labor Day.
A Roberts aide said last week that the chairman was trying to arrange a vote on the bill. North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven told The Hagstrom Report that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would call the bill for debate when proponents could show that at least 60 senators will vote for it.
In a surprising twist, GMO labeling became a partisan issue in March, with Democrats derailing a Roberts pre-emption bill that kept labeling voluntary. Stabenow, the senior Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, insisted that mandatory disclosure be part of legislation. The Roberts-Stabenow bill allows companies to put a “made with GMO” label on packages, to use a symbol or a QR code.