National Sea Grant College Program Amendments Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. DeFAZIO. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I would agree with one of the earlier speakers. It would be confusing for consumers to have 50 different State standards. There is a simple solution, but it is not what is before us today: a simple, forthright disclosure in plain English.

For instance, this was obtained out of a House vending machine just today. It was distributed by Mars. We are all familiar with M&Ms. Partially produced with genetic engineering.

Wow, that wasn't too hard, was it?

I think that is what we should be doing here today, instead of saying: Oh, we are going to maybe have one of three ways of doing it, and one of them will be a QR code.

Well, this doesn't have any QR codes on it, so I won't get my QR reader out. So the average American will be in the grocery store pulling out their iPhone and they are going to have hope there is a good signal in there and they are going to read that. That is ridiculous.

Sixty-four countries require this. The last time we debated this, I brought in a Hershey's bar wrapper. It had a little nice American flag on it. Made in America. Contains GMOs. That is the version they sell in 64 other countries, but they can't do it here. They say you can't do it here. It is too expensive. We will have to change the labels.

Well, M&M's just changed the labels. And now, with what you are doing today, they will probably change it back and take off the words that say ``partially produced with genetic engineering,'' because they won't have to do that anymore.

This is not about passing judgment on the safety or the science behind genetic engineering. It is to say that 90 percent of the American people want to know what is in their food. They want to know it has Blue 1, Lake Yellow 6, Red 40, corn syrup, dextrin, corn starch, peanuts, milk, soy, oh, and partially produced with genetic engineering. That is not too hard. That is what the American people want. But you are going to deny them that.

On any other day, I would hear my Republican colleagues say we're for states' rights. Well, now we are just about to preempt the States because, if the States do it, it will become confusing.

Well, how about we just have a national standard, plain and simple, plain English, so that American consumers will know. It is not too hard, and it is very sad that we have come to this point.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation.

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