In a scramble to end the congressional session Friday, lawmakers passed an omnibus spending bill that also repeals country-of-origin labeling. The bill, needed to fund the government for the rest of fiscal year 2016, passed the House Friday morning 316-113 and quickly passed the Senate. In what may be one the bigger compromises in recent history on Capitol Hill, the Huffington Post reported neither side, Republicans or Democrats, could really say they won the negotiations, or that they lost. The bill offers a repeal of COOL, thought needed to prevent retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico that were authorized by the World Trade Organization. The passage came just as the two countries were getting final authorization from the WTO to impose the tariffs on Friday. That received support from several agriculture groups while others criticized the bill and called for a voluntary labeling measure. What the bill didn’t include, however, found more criticism from agriculture, a national GMO labeling provision and a block of the Environmental Protection Agency’s ‘Waters of the U.S.’ rule.
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