On February 22, 2022, U.S. Senator and Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and U.S. Senator and Committee member, Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, requesting improvements to the United States’ biobased economy. Senators Stabenow and Klobuchar’s request focuses particularly on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) BioPreferred® Program (Program), urging that USDA leverage its long-standing expertise in biobased products to strengthen the Program.
Managed by USDA, the Program aims to increase the purchase and use of biobased products, spur economic development, create new jobs, and provide new markets for farm commodities. The Program has two major parts:
- Mandatory purchasing requirements for federal agencies and their contractors; and
- A voluntary labeling initiative for biobased products.
According to Senators Stabenow and Klobuchar, federal procurement for BioPreferred® products has failed to increase, despite significant product innovations in recent years. The two U.S. Senators encourage the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and USDA to educate procurement officers on the benefits of BioPreferred® products and routinely to measure progress of the Program. They also request that Secretary Vilsack and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce complete swiftly creation of North American Product Classification System (NAPCS) codes, correlating them to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes to capture the multiple industries into which each product is sold.
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