mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman for yielding time , and i join him in rising in strong opposition to this amendment . 
this amendment is foolhardy just like the underlying provision that was placed in the farm bill at the last minute . 
we debated this thoroughly in the house agriculture committee prior to the writing of that farm bill and the committee members , 51 members , all from agricultural districts , overwhelmingly rejected this amendment as not in the best interest of america 's farmers and ranchers . 
the senate held no hearings , insisted on this provision , and it was put into law . 
what we found after it was put into law was that it does harm . 
it does exactly the opposite of what farmers and ranchers intended . 
it increases the cost an estimated $ 10 per head for cattle , $ 1.50 for hogs , a similar amount for sheep ; and it has the effect , the opposite of what was intended . 
it will make our products less competitive with foreign meat products , not more competitive . 
that is wrongheaded . 
secondly , it imposes unbelievably stringent liability on the retailers , and every one of them is writing their own separate set of regulations , so that if this law is allowed to take effect , and i commend the gentleman from texas ( mr. bonilla ) xz4000370 for postponing that because we need to have a voluntary system , if it goes into effect , we are going to have a separate set of regulations for each retailer that farmers and ranchers will have to comply with in order to get their products sold . 
once again they will say no liability risk if we buy the foreign product , no problem complying with additional regulations , they are going to buy more foreign product , not less . 
finally , last year i offered in the committee on agriculture legislation to do this the right way , to make it voluntary . 
when we did so , again the committee members overwhelmingly voted not to do this mandatory system , but to make it voluntary . 
that is what we should continue to work toward today . 
the way to do that is to keep the provision of the gentleman from texas in this bill and delay the implementation of this very bad legislation . 
