05/16/08 Veto Proof & COOL

Veto Proof & COOL. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. The U.S. Senate has sent President Bush an apparently veto-proof farm bill - passing it 81 to 15 - 14 more than the two-thirds vote needed. The Senate - like the House a day earlier - passed the House-Senate farm bill by a huge margin - after turning back challenges by conservatives that the 300-billion dollar bill broke budget rules. Democrats and Republicans called on the President not to veto the bill - and Ag Chair Tom Harkin had this. HARKIN: This is a bi-partisan bill. In fact I just got a note this morning that our former Secretary of Agriculture, former Secretary Mike Johanns has now said that he would vote for the bill; he would support it. USDA has plans to implement Country-of-Origin labeling yet this year according to Under Secretary of Agriculture Bruce Knight. KNIGHT: We will have it operational by September 30. You will see the rules this summer, hopefully we can have those published by about July. He also says the National Animal Identification Systems and COOL will go hand in hand. KNIGHT: If an animal has an eartag in its ear that represents a NAIS identifiable system; they've got official registration in that eartag, they're carrying all the documentation they are veer going to need to make sure that their steak or their pork chop or whatever can go into the retail case and be accurately and fully labeled as U.S. origin. And that is the best thing a producer can do now in the uncertainty that surrounds where we are moving forward on Country-of-Origin labeling. Now here's today's Washington Grange Report. (GRANGE) That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.