Although Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) has indicated that he will introduce a bill to preempt state GMO labeling requirements to jump start Senate action on the bill, he has not done so yet. However, sources famililar with the bill say that it calls for permanent preemption of state laws and give the USDA authority to set standards on what companies can disclose on their packages.
In a statement to Agri-Pulse this week, Roberts said he is working with Debbie Stabenow, the committee’s ranking Democrat “toward a timely, comprehensive solution to the patchwork of state laws. It is my plan for our committee to act on a solution soon.”
The push for Senate action indicated that industry groups have all but given up hope on an injunction from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block Vermont’s state law mandating GMO labeling from going into effect on July 1, 2016. Oral arguments in that case — Grocery Manufacturers Association, et al., v. Sorrell — took place October 8 in New York City but the court has yet to rule. The underlying case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, meanwhile, is set to be ready to go to trial by late April.
