The House, acting with the support of the Bush administration, recently voted to block implementation of standards that require meat and meat products to bear a label indicating their country of origin. These country of origin labeling (COOL) requirements, which were mandated by the 2002 farm bill, were conceived to help consumers identify American-made products, and are seen as increasingly important due to the recent discovery of mad cow disease in Canada. Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX), motivated by opposition from the meat industry, tacked on a provision to the FY 2004 agriculture appropriations bill prohibiting the use of funds to implement country of origin labeling for meat and meat products. This restriction does not affect COOL requirements for other foods such as seafood, produce and peanuts. Rep. Dennis Rehberg (R-MT) offered an amendment to strip Bonilla’s rider from the bill, but the effort failed by a vote of 193 to 208. The effort to block the COOL requirements is expected to face greater opposition in the Senate, where the labeling proposal originated.