As farm bill stalls, beef labeling gets a new life

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who called their U.S. senators urging them to support a “yes” vote for mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef in the 2026 farm bill. You won the vote on Aug. 6 in the Senate Agriculture Committee — and you won big!

This was a historical, bipartisan vote. There are 23 senators who serve on the agriculture committee. Twelve are Republicans and 11 are Democrats.

The vote on Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s amendment to include MCOOL in the farm bill included “yes” votes from half the Republicans and from all the Democrats, making this a truly bipartisan effort.

It’s important that you know who supported this widely popular amendment to include MCOOL in the farm bill with a 17-6 vote.

On the Republican side, the six “yes” votes were from Thune, of South Dakota, as well as Joni Ernst, Iowa; Deb Fischer, Nebraska; Chuck Grassley, Iowa; John Hoevenl, North Dakota; and Cindy Hyde-Smith, Mississippi.

On the Democrat side, the 11 “yes” votes were from Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, as well as Michael Bennet, Colorado; Cory Booker, New Jersey; Dick Durbin, Illinois; John Fetterman, Pennsylvania; Ben Ray Luján, New Mexico; Adam Schiff, California; Elissa Slotkin, Michigan; Tina Smith, Minnesota; Raphael Warnock, Georgia; and Peter Welch, Vermont.

Now, those were our 17 champions. But the six U.S. senators who voted against us on MCOOL were Republicans John Boozman, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee from Arkansas, as well as Jim Justice, West Virginia; Roger Marshall, Kansas; Mitch McConnell, Kentucky; Jerry Moran, Kansas; and Tommy Tuberville, Alabama.

Though this was an incredibly important vote won by a large margin, the vote was for an amendment to include MCOOL in the farm bill. But the farm bill itself did not pass the committee.

It failed along party lines due to a split on how the farm bill would address Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provisions.

This means that when the Senate gets back from its August recess, passing the farm bill in the Senate Agriculture Committee will be on the agenda.

The grapevine indicates it could be taken up in the middle of September. So, this is a case of “it’s not over till it’s over.”

Here’s what we should expect as we go forward. First, opponents of MCOOL have likely been rocked back on their heels after the vote. They didn’t expect to lose, and they certainly didn’t expect to lose by such a wide margin.

They’ll likely regroup and begin doubling down to convince Congress that the world will come to an end if MCOOL remains in the farm bill.

They’ll likely flaunt their advocacy paper that claims MCOOL is too burdensome and will cost too much, even though Congress knows and we know that when we had MCOOL for beef from 2013 through 2015, the costs were not excessive and the beef supply chain continued functioning as it should.

They’ll likely claim that the World Trade Organization won’t allow the United States to inform consumers as to the origin of their beef and will resurrect a ruling from over a decade ago to scare Congress.

But the WTO has been significantly reformed over the past decade by three U.S. presidents, and it is unlikely to overreach today as it did over a decade ago.

They’ll likely claim that consumers don’t care where their beef is produced or by whom, despite the numerous surveys and polls that show consumers overwhelmingly want to know the origins of their beef.

Our job, meaning the work we must all do to permanently win MCOOL for beef, is to maintain a steady drumbeat of support for keeping MCOOL in the farm bill.

We can each tell our U.S. senators from now through September about the fact that MCOOL for beef won a bipartisan and overwhelming vote to be included in the farm bill by members of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

We can tell those senators who voted for it that we appreciate their willingness to support U.S. consumers and cattle producers. And we can tell every other senator of our strong desire to have them vote in favor of MCOOL when it is brought to the full floor of the Senate, hopefully this fall.

Again, congratulations and thank you for your continued support. Remember, you can reach your two U.S. senators by calling the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking for them by name.