Congress Passes FY 2004 Omnibus Appropriations Conference Report
On January 22, 2004, the Senate passed the conference report for H.R. 2673, the fiscal year (FY) 2004 omnibus appropriations bill for a number of federal government departments and agencies, by a vote of 65 to 28.
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The House of Representatives had previously passed the H.R. 2673 conference report on December 8, 2003. In a January 22, 2004 response to the Senate's action, President Bush stated that he looked forward to signing the FY 2004 omnibus appropriations bill into law.
(A separate FY 2004 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was signed into law on October 1, 2003. See ITT's Online Archives or 10/02/03 news, 03100215, for BP summary.)
This is Part I of a multi-part series of summaries on the H.R. 2673 conference report and covers the provision delaying mandatory country of origin labeling for certain meat, produce, and peanuts. See future issues of ITT for additional summaries.
Conference Report Would Delay Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling for Subject Meat, Produce and Peanuts (Fish to Require Labeling)
The H.R. 2673 conference report includes a provision that will delay, until September 30, 2006, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002's (Farm Bill, Public Law (P.L. 107-171) requirement that certain retailers of muscle cuts of beef, lamb, and pork; ground beef, lamb, and pork; certain perishable agricultural commodities (i.e., fresh fruits and vegetables, whether or not frozen or packed in ice, and certain cherries in brine); and peanuts inform consumers at the final point of sale of the country of origin of those commodities.
However, the H.R. 2673 conference report does not delay the mandatory country of origin labeling requirement for farm-raised and wild fish, which will continue to be subject to the Farm Bill's original September 30, 2004 effective date.
(On October 30, 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) issued a proposed rule to implement the Farm Bill's September 30, 2004 mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) requirement for subject meat, fish, produce and peanuts sold at retail. AMS subsequently extended its comment period on this proposed rule until February 27, 2004. See ITT's Online Archives or 11/04/03 news, 03110410, for the final part of BP's multi-part series of summaries on AMS' proposed rule, including links to previous parts of the series. See ITT's Online Archives or 12/23/03 news, 03122315, for BP summary of the comment period extension.
BP is checking with AMS sources to see whether they intend to revise or withdraw their proposed rule in light of the pending enactment of the FY 2004 omnibus appropriations bill and will update subscribers as new information is available.)
H.R. 2673 conference report (H. Rept. 108-401) available at
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/R?cp108:FLD010:@1(hr401).
House Appropriations Committee press release (dated 11/25/03) available at
http://appropriations.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=340.
Senate Appropriations Committee press release (dated 11/25/03) available at
http://appropriations.senate.gov/releases/record.cfm?id=215567.
President Bush's statement on H.R. 2673 (dated 01/22/04) available at
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040122-11.html.