United Fresh has learned that Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer has informed House and Senate agricultural leaders that he intends to move $3.2 million from the recently enacted Specialty Crop Block Grant program to fund oversight and enforcement responsibilities for mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL). "United strongly opposes this blatant attempt to raid mandatory funds devoted to specialty crops, and is quickly working to engage all members of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance to join in opposing this action," said United President Tom Stenzel. "While the Secretary has some discretionary authority to move funds between different programs, this is simply bad public policy all the way around. It is incomprehensible that USDA would place the entire burden of funding COOL enforcement on our sector, when COOL applies to meat and seafood as well. If USDA believes additional funding is required for COOL enforcement, we strongly believe Congress should appropriate funding solely for that purpose," he said.