Pollinator-Friendly Plant Labeling Act
Latest action · Jun 22, 2023 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJun 22, 2023
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Pollinator-Friendly Plant Labeling Act
This bill directs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a voluntary pollinator-friendly plant labeling and certification program.
Specifically, a producer (i.e., a nursery or farmer growing a plant or cultivating a seed for sale) may submit an application to USDA for approval to sell or label a plant as a USDA pollinator-friendly plant. To qualify, a plant must (1) be living; (2) have a Natural Resources Conservation Service determination that it is native to the United States and known to be beneficial to pollinators (including providing habitat and forage for pollinators); and (3) be produced without any pesticide or substance prohibited from being used in the production or handling of organic products under the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990.
USDA must approve an application for certification if the producer meets the requirements and has been third-party certified.
Further, a plant labeled as USDA pollinator-friendly must comply with additional labeling requirements (e.g., include the name of the plant producer and an instruction specifying that distributors and retailers are not permitted to apply any pesticide product to the plant).
The bill also provides for USDA investigation and enforcement authority. Any person who knowingly mislabels a plant as USDA pollinator-friendly is subject to a civil penalty.
Cosponsors 7
Members who signed on, in the order they did. All signed on Jun 22, 2023.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-CA | Alex Padilla | Original | Jun 22, 2023 |
| D-NJ | Cory A. Booker | Original | Jun 22, 2023 |
| D-CA | Dianne Feinstein | Original | Jun 22, 2023 |
| D-NM | Martin Heinrich | Original | Jun 22, 2023 |
| D-VT | Peter Welch | Original | Jun 22, 2023 |
| D-CT | Richard Blumenthal | Original | Jun 22, 2023 |
| D-OR | Ron Wyden | Original | Jun 22, 2023 |
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jun 22, 2023Introduced in Senate
- Jun 22, 2023Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Agriculture and Food.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jun 22, 2023Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.
