Good news on the Farm Bill, but don't stop pushing yet!

We have tentative good news about the Farm Bill. When the House Agriculture Committee began its meeting on Tuesday, the Chairman's Markup of the bill included section 11101, which would allow USDA to use mandatory animal ID to implement COOL. Representative Goodlatte offered an amendment that would have effectively gutted COOL, creating a major fight focused on that issue. Thursday night, the Committee agreed on an outline of the compromise COOL amendment. The specific language is still being drafted by the legislative staffers, and that language will be voted on by the Committee in the coming week.

The bullet points for the compromise COOL amendment state that the current prohibition on using mandatory animal ID would be retained. In other words, USDA wouldn't be able to use mandatory animal ID to implement COOL!

This is VERY good news. But until we see the actual language, we don't want to take the pressure off the legislators! Nothing is final until it is written down and voted on! If you haven't called your Representative, please go ahead and do so. Find who your Representative is here. And, as we've said before, call any member of the House Agriculture Committee is from your state. The members are listed below. The House version of the Farm Bill is NOT final yet, and we must keep pushing until it is!

MESSAGE: I am against the National Animal Identification System. I do not want any provision for NAIS or mandatory animal identification in the Farm Bill.

Remember that the Senate Agriculture Committee will be doing its own version of the Farm Bill very soon, so the fight is definitely not over. But as we keep fighting, we can be encouraged by the fact that the legislators are obviously hearing the message that the people are against NAIS!

For more information, go to www.libertyark.net or contact libertyark@freedom.org

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE

Name (State), Phone number, Fax number. If you want to use e-mail, then go to the Congressperson's website, which you can find here.

Terry Everett (AL), (p) 202-225-2901, (f) 202-225-8913
Michael Rogers (AL), (p) 202-225-3261, (f) 202-226-8485
Jo Bonner (AL), (p) 202-225-4931, (f) 202-225-0562

Joe Baca (CA), (p) 202-225-6161, (f) 202-225-8671
Dennis Cardoza (CA), (p) 202-225-6131, (f) 202-225-0819
Jim Costa (CA), (p) 202-225-3341, (f) 202-225-9308
Kevin McCarthy (CA), (202) 225-2915, (f) 202-225-2908

John T. Salazar (CO), (p) 202-225-4761, (f) 202-226-9669
Marilyn Musgrove (CO), (p) 202-225-4676, (f) 202-225-5870

Timothy Mahoney (FL), (p) 202-225-5792, (f) 202-225-3132

David Scott (GA), (p) 202-225-2939, (f) 202-225-4628
Jim Marshall (GA), (p) 202-225-6531, (f) 202-225-3013
John Barrow (GA), (p) 866-890-6236, (f) 202-225-3377

Leonard L. Boswell, (IA), (p) 202-225-3806, (f) 202-225-5608
Steve King (IA), (p) 202-225-4426, (f) 202-225-3193

Timothy Johnson (IL), 202-225-2371, (f) 202-226-0791

Brad Ellsworth (IN), (p) 866-567-0227, (f) 202-225-3284
Joe Donnelly (IN), (p) 202-225-3915, (f) 202-225-6798

Nancy Boyda (KS), (p) 202-225-6601, (f) 202-225-7986
Jerry Moran (KS), (p) 202-225-2715, (f) 202-225-5124

Charles W. Boustany, Hr. (LA), (p) 202-225-2031, (f) 202-225-5724

Tim Walberg (MI), (p) 202-225-6276, (f) 202-225-6281

Collin Peterson (MN), (p) 202-225-2165, (f) 202-225-1593
Timothy J. Walz (MN), (p) 202-225-2472, (f) 202-225-3433

Sam Graves (MO), (p) 202-225-7041, (f) 202-225-8221

Earl Pomeroy, (ND), (p) 202-225-2611, (f) 202-226-0893

Mike McIntyre (NC), (p) 202-225-2731, (f) 202-225-5773
Bob Etheridge (NC), (p) 202-225-4531, (f) 202-225-5662
Robin Hayes, (NC), (p) 202-225-3715, (f)202-225-4036
Virginia Foxx (NC), (p) 202-225-2071, (f) 202-225-2995

Jeff Fortnberry (NE), (p) 202-225-4806, (f) 202-225-5686
Adrian Smith (NE), (p) 202-225-6435, (f) 202-225-0207

Kirsten Gillibrand, (NY), (p) 202-225-5614, (f) 202-225-1168
John R. "Randy" Kuhl, Jr. (NY), 202-225-3161, (f) 202-226-6599

Zachary T. Space (OH), (p) 202-225-6265, (f) 330-364-4330
Jean Schmidt (OH), (p) 202-225-3164, (f) 202-225-1992

Frank D. Lucas (OK), (p) 202-225-5565, (f) 202-225-8698

Tim Holden (PA), (p) 202-225-5546, (f) 202-226-0996

Stephanie Herseth Sandline, (SD), (p) 202-225-2801, (f) 202-225-5823

Lincoln Davis (TN), (p) 202-225-6831, (f) 202-226-5172

Henry Cuellar (TX), (p) 202-225-1640, (f) 202-225-1641
Mike Conaway (TX), (p) 202-225-3605, (f) 202-225-1783
Randy Neugebauer (TX), (p) 202-225-4005, (f) 202-225-9615
Nicholas Lampson (TX), (p) 202-225-5951, (f) 202-225-5241

Bob Goodlatte (VA), (p) 202-225-5431, (f) 202-225-9681

Steve Kagen (WI), (p) 202-225-5665, (f) 202-225-5729