King amendment resurfaces in proposed 2018 farm bill

A member of Congress from Iowa who proposed an amendment to prevent states from regulating the farm animal production in other states during the farm bill deliberations in 2013 has introduced a similar amendment to the 2018 farm bill.

Roy Graber Headshot
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa | Photo courtesy of Rep. Steve King
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa | Photo courtesy of Rep. Steve King

A member of Congress from Iowa who proposed an amendment to prevent states from regulating farm animal production in other states during the farm bill deliberations of 2013 has introduced a similar amendment to the 2018 farm bill.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, has proposed the Protect Interstate Commerce Act (PICA) within the House version of the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018. Under PICA, a state or local government would be prohibited from imposing a “standard or condition on the production or manufacture of agricultural products sold or offered for sale in interstate commerce, if the production occurs in another state and the standard or condition adds to standards applicable under federal law and the laws of the state or locality in which the production or manufacture occurs.”

King’s new amendment has been approved by the House Agriculture Committee as part of the 2018 farm bill, and is now being considered by the full House.

Like the King amendment proposed in 2013, PICA takes particular aim at California, which passed Proposition 2 and AB 1437. Proposition 2 requires that all eggs produced in California come from hens that have adequate room to stand up, sit down, turn around and extend their limbs without touching another bird or the sides of the cage. AB 1437 requires that eggs from all other states that are sold in California be raised according to Proposition 2 standards.

A similar law has been passed by voters in Massachusetts, while another is being considered by the Rhode Island legislature. The Massachusetts and Rhode Island bills have provisions that do not allow the sale of eggs from caged hens or pork from farms that use gestation stalls for sows.

Since Iowa is a leading egg and pork producing state, King has advocated to nullify laws like the ones in California and Massachusetts.

“I am grateful that my Protect Interstate Commerce Act legislation was endorsed by the House Agriculture Committee and included in the farm bill,” King stated in a press release. “States do not have the Constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce; the United States Congress does. If California, or any other state, wants to regulate how products are made within their borders, they can do so. But Iowa’s producers should not be held hostage to the demands of California’s vegan lobby and California’s regulatory agencies.”

Other support for amendment

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, has also voiced his support of PICA.

“If you’re going to protect open American agriculture and competition, the King amendment is the way to go about doing that,” he said.

Fate of earlier King amendment

The King amendment that was proposed in 2013 did not make it into the final version of that farm bill. That farm bill was signed into U.S. law by then-President Barack Obama on February 7, 2014.

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