Mike Pompeo

I thank the gentleman. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Conaway). (Mr. CONAWAY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

To engage in a colloquy with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Conaway). When considering the substitute reported by the Committee on Agriculture, I would like to confirm that the committee was aware that many ingredients derived from…

A bipartisan bill, proposed by Reps. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) and G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), would block states from requiring GMO labeling.

I asked Representative Kate Webb, the assistant majority leader in Vermont, that question. She said she agreed with it.

I do think it is important that for foods that are labeled non-GMO, that there is a Federal standard for that.

But my bill, in your judgment, it will allow those 7 percent of the people to continue to eat all non-GMO food if they chose and to only purchase products that contained a label that reflected that.

In fact, Mr. Jaffe, a question to you. First of all, I want to say thank you. I have appreciated your counsel through this.

There would be hundreds of thousands of state laws still in effect. There just would be no ability for a state to have mandatory labeling.

There is nothing in this legislation that denies any food producer any ability to market their product as non-GMO as long as that is a truthful statement and accurate.

The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act introduced to this Congress by Representatives Mike Pompeo and G.K. Butterfield would ensure that the labeling of biotech ingredients of food products is based on consistent standards using sound…

The reality is that biotechnology, time and time again, has been proven safe. This is simply not a debatable point.

Expanding government at any level to enshrine preferences into a costly legal requirement is bad policy.

Before the idea that the government at any level should step in and mandate that they be labeled borders on the absurd.

The fact is scientific consensus on the safety of genetically engineered products is overwhelming.

Do you believe that the American taxpayer has received good value for the tens of billions of federal dollars that have been spent on carbon capture technologies to date, yes or no?

Captain Christopher Lee Norgren, Wichita, Kansas, Kansas' Fourth Congressional District.

We have this obligation, just as you do, to make sure that the CPSC statutes are implemented in a way that is both legal, and appropriate, and useful.

I would hope that the two of you would appreciate that too, but instead what I get is two Government agencies, each of which wants increased authority, increased power, more control, the capacity to define rights, sort of the historic…

The hypocrisy to come today and say we are both moving too slow and asking for too much is something the American people will get to judge as we move forward.

Does anybody care--today want to say today that OPEC is dead?

No defense required.

I think we made a mistake putting it in place in the 1970s.

I think if we unleash markets, glorious things will happen.

Look, at the end of the day, this is a Bill that is needed to make sure that folks all across America can afford food.

Thank you for yielding, Mrs. Blackburn. Thank you to you and to Mr. Butterfield for being cosponsors of this bill.