Leahy Organic Restoration Act Passes Congress
As Amendment To Appropriations Bill;
Restores Strict Organic Standards

WASHINGTON (Mon. April 14) – The U.S. House and Senate over the weekend repealed a special-interest rider enacted in February that has threatened to undermine the seven-month-old national organic standards and labeling program run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) offered the amendment to repeal the anti-organic rider. Leahy’s bipartisan amendment, which was approved earlier by the Senate it its initial version of the supplemental appropriations bill, was cosponsored by 51 other senators, and the leading Republican cosponsor of the Leahy Amendment was Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho).  It is identical to the Organic Restoration Act (S.457), introduced by Leahy and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), which currently has 70 Senate cosponsors (including Leahy, the chief sponsor).  House and Senate negotiators on Friday approved the Leahy amendment for the final version of the bill, and the compromise bill then passed each body on Saturday.

“This is a watershed victory for organic producers and their new and growing industry,” said Leahy.  “This will help maintain confidence in the new standards.  Consumers need to know that the ‘USDA Organic’ label means what it says.”

Leahy is the "father" of the national organic standards and labeling program and the author of the legislation that chartered the program in 1990.

The earlier rider that the amendment repealed was intended to allow producers to label their meat and dairy products "organic" even though they do not meet USDA’s strict criteria, including that the animals be fed organically grown feed, if USDA finds that organic feed is too expensive or hard to find.  The rider was intended to benefit one Georgia producer, but it was written broadly enough that it essentially created a loophole for any livestock producer in the country to get around the organic feed requirement.

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Click here to learn more about Senator Leahy's work on organics