Byron Dorgan: “I voted to reject the conference committee's report on the fiscal year 2006 Agriculture appropriations bill. There is…”

“I voted to reject the conference committee's report on the fiscal year 2006 Agriculture appropriations bill. There is much about this bill that I support. It funds important research in North Dakota and across the country that will greatly benefit American agriculture. I voted against the conference report because of how it treats an important issue called country-of-origin labeling. The 2002 farm bill required that fruits, vegetables, seafood, and meat sold in grocery stores and supermarkets be labeled with its country of origin. This is a consumer-friendly, farmer-friendly, rancher-friendly law, and I strongly supported it. After all, if we can look at a label on our T- shirt and know where it came from, we should be able to do the same with the T-bone steak on our dinner plate. Country-of-origin labeling, or COOL, was supposed to begin in September 2004. If we had followed the law we passed in the farm bill, American consumers would today be able to know where their food comes from, and our farmers and ranchers would be reaping the benefits. Unfortunately, 2 years ago, opponents of this commonsense law hid a provision in a massive spending bill that delayed the start date for COOL until 2006. COOL is the law of the land. The Senate has voted overwhelmingly in favor of it. It should have gone into effect years ago. So I was outraged to learn there was another 2-year delay of COOL in this year's Agriculture Appropriations bill.…”