Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is seeking to introduce an amendment to the upcoming farm bill that would overturn protections given to Monsanto and other producers of genetically modified seeds.
Anonymously slipped into a spending package in March that averted a government shutdown and signed into law by President Obama, the farmer assurance provision limits the ability of judges to stop Monsanto or the farmers it sells genetically modified seeds from growing or harvesting those crops even if courts find evidence of potential health risks.
The Monsanto Protection Act is an outrageous example of a special interest loophole, said Merkley said in a press release. This provision nullifies the actions of a court that is enforcing the law to protect farmers, the environment and public health. That is unacceptable.
Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/push-overturn-monsanto-protection-act-article-1.1352178#ixzz2VSUWdtl1
The measure was originally enacted into law by being inserted into an unrelated spending bill and is set to expire later this year. "The Monsanto Protection Act refers to a policy rider the House slipped into the recently passed continuing resolution and sent over to the Senate," Merkley noted on the floor.
"Because of the time-urgent consideration of this must-pass legislation -- necessary to avert a government shutdown -- this policy rider slipped through without examination or debate."
"I wish to assure my friend that I think it would be inappropriate for that language to be adopted in a conference committee or otherwise adopted in a manner designed to bypass open debate in the relevant committees and this chamber," Stabenow told Merkley. "I will do my best to oppose any effort to add this kind of extension in the conference committee on this farm bill or to otherwise extend it without appropriate legislative examination."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/06/monsanto-protection-act-debbie-stabenow_n_3396615.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037
Of all things to sneak into law, the Monsanto Protection Act took precedence. Notice how it was put in anonymously? Somebody is getting paid big bucks.