Hard Look At COOL & Temporary Fix for Schools and Forests

Hard Look At COOL & Temporary Fix for Schools and Forests

Hard Look At COOL & Temporary Fix for Schools and Forests. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

Country of Origin Labeling was the topic of a Livestock Subcommittee Hearing on COOL meat labeling requirements and the risk for retaliatory tariffs that current regulations pose to U.S. producers. Congressman Dan Newhouse of Washington questioned several witnesses on the ruling with a consensus of getting rid of it.

NEWHOUSE: The testimony was overwhelming, I guess, on doing just that. Most people expressed a huge concern on what the impact of any retaliation - assuming that we lose the case at the World Trade Organization, that the retaliation we might see from Canada and Mexico if we don't take action.

Representative Greg Walden of Oregon is pleased with a strong bipartisan vote of a two-year extension of the Secure Rural Schools program. The extension, which was included in a bipartisan bill that reforms how doctors are paid under Medicare, provides needed funding for schools, roads, and law enforcement in rural forested communities.

WALDEN: Now this is like one of those cans of flat fix, if you will. It's an emergency repair on the side of the road to solve a short term problem when what we really need is a permanent fix for our forested counties.

During the last session of Congress, the House twice passed a bipartisan plan that Walden helped write to reform federal forest policy. Unfortunately, Senate Democratic leaders never took any meaningful action to reform federal forest policy.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.

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