The House passed, by a 2-to-1 margin, a bill to pre-empt states from requiring special labels on foods made with genetically modified organisms and sent the legislation to the Senate, where its chief backer says “it’s a work in progress” and far from ready for action.
North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, a Republican, says he is trying to craft a bill that will win bipartisan backing. “We have to get to 60 votes,” Hoeven told reporters, referring to the threshold needed to prevent a filibuster. “We don’t have that yet. We’re talking to a number of different senators.”
Hoeven said he doesn’t expect to file a bill until after the summer break. While a quarter of the U.S. House membership sponsored HR 1599, the food industry and farm groups have not recruited a Senate sponsor after months of trying. The industry seems to be pinning its hopes on Hoeven, a banker who served as governor of North Dakota before he was elected to the Senate in 2010.
Proponents hope that the strong victory margin in the House will create Senate momentum for pre-emption legislation. “We now call on the U.S. Senate to move quickly on a companion bill and pass it this year,” said the Grocery Manufacturers Association. The Environmental Working Group said it was confident the Senate would not pass a pre-emption bill and shrugged off the House vote, saying, “This House was bought and paid for by corporate interests.”
There was speculation that pre-emption language will be attached to a must-pass bill in the closing days of this year’s congressional session. Political polarization is slowing movement of many bills.
Representatives passed HR 1599 on a 275-150 roll call that ran mostly along party lines. All but a dozen Republicans voted for the bill and Democrats generally opposed it, although 45 of them voted for it, including the senior Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, Collin Peterson. Four Democratic amendments to weaken or gut HR 1599 were easily swept aside by the Republican-controlled House.
Besides pre-empting state labeling laws, HR 1599 would keep labeling voluntary on the federal level and put the USDA in charge of certifying non-GMO foods. Opponents such as Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii Democrat, said HR 1599 would quash all state and local regulation of GMO crops. Lead sponsor Mike Pompeo, a Kansas Republican, insisted, “This is simply about labeling.”
Vermont’s first-in-the-nation GMO food-labeling law is scheduled to take effect next July 1. Connecticut and Maine have passed labeling laws that will take effect whenever neighboring states take the same step.
“The question is whether consumers, when they purchase food, have a right to know what’s in it,” said Rep. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat. “What is the big fear of letting consumers know?”
“Mandatory labels are used as a warning or caution,” said Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway of Texas. “We believe the voluntary [certification] program meets the need of consumers to know.”
Pompeo said federal pre-emption was necessary to prevent a hodgepodge of labeling requirements that could drive up grocery costs by $500 a year for a family. There is no question that GMO foods are safe, he said, arguing labeling campaigns were “a naked attempt to impose the preferences of a small minority on the rest of us.”