The Cattlemen’s Capitol Concerns (CCC) is a weekly report from Washington, D.C., giving an up-to-date summary of top policy initiatives concerning the cattle industry; direct from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA).

Cattlemen Reach Out Locally to Members of Congress:  With Congress back home for August recess, cattlemen have a unique opportunity to seek out their Senators and Representatives in their home states and communicate to them about the importance of disaster assistance, Superfund legislation or any of the other issues described below.  For more information on these issues or for tips on how to contact your member of congress, visit http://capwiz.com/beefusa or contact NCBA’s Washington office at 202-347-0228.

Japanese Consumers Welcome Back U.S. Beef:  As U.S. beef moves back into the Japanese market, consumers in Japan are snatching it up, according to reports by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).  Approximately five metric tons of U.S. beef at three Costco stores in the Tokyo area sold out in the first day.  Reports by local media say Japanese shoppers lined up for tastes of U.S. beef being sampled at the store, and many purchased multiple packs of the product.  USMEF has posted photographs from Japan and audio clips on their website at http://www.usmef.org/IndustryNews.

USMEF also is actively reaching out to Japanese consumers to provide assurances that the U.S. beef industry is dedicated to their interests through safe, wholesome U.S. beef.  USMEF representatives distributed samples of U.S. beef and “We Care” materials, including advertising, informational brochures, retail and food service resources, and information about upcoming interviews and promotion events.  A web site targeting Japanese consumers has been developed at http://wecare.jp. 

Korean Trade:  Thirty-one key Members of the U.S. Senate sent a letter August 4 to Korean President Roh Moo-hyun requesting his personal attention regarding Korea’s continued embargo on U.S. beef.  “It has been more than seven months since our countries’ health officials agreed on initial conditions to resume trade,” the letter says.  “The restoration of beef trade prior to the conclusion of talks scheduled for the end of this year is essential to making meaningful progress and addressing congressional reservations about a possible free trade agreement.”  The letter adds “the urgency of resuming trade is heightened now that other Asian nations are open to U.S. beef exports.”  

The letter was signed by:  Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), William H. Frist (R-Tenn.), Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Larry Craig (R-Idaho), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), Jim Talent (R-Mo.), Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.), and John Thune (R-S.D.).

Drought Assistance:  Senate leaders wrote a letter August 3 to Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to urge assistance for farmers and ranchers impacted by the current drought situation.  The Senators ask for an ag disaster assistance package to be debated and “quickly passed...shortly after the Senate returns in September.”  The letter was signed by 17 Senate leaders including:  Senators Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), Jim Talent (R-Mo.), and John Thune (R-S.D.).

Last week Senator Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and 14 of his colleagues sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson requesting that he extend the tax relief for ranchers who were forced to sell off large portions of their herds as a result of the drought in 2002.  Copies of these letters are posted at www.beefusa.org.  Also posted on our website is a new “question & answer document” that NCBA created to help producers learn about the tax options that are available to producers who are forced to sell livestock as a result of drought. 

USDA Announces New Insurance Tools for Pasture, Rangeland and Forage:  USDA announced August 7 the availability of two new risk management tools for pasture, rangeland and forage, beginning with the 2007 crop year.  The new insurance programs, the Rainfall Index Insurance Program and the Vegetation Index Insurance Program, are offered by the Risk Management Agency (RMA) and are available through approved insurance providers. These programs will provide livestock producers the ability to purchase insurance protection for losses of forage produced for grazing or harvested for hay.  More detailed information about these two new pilot programs is available on the RMA Web site at: http://www.rma.usda.gov/policies/pasturerangeforage. 

Cattlemen Urge Support for Superfund Bills:  With active bills in both the House and Senate, cattlemen continue to reach out to members of congress to support bills clarifying that animal manure should not be regulated under Superfund laws.  In the Senate, S. 3681 has 27 co-sponsors. In the House, H.R. 4341 currently has 177 co-sponsors.  Visit http://capwiz.com/beefusa to see a full list of co-sponsors.  If your Senator or Representative is not yet listed, send a message to them asking them to sign on, or seek them out at home over August recess and talk to them about the importance of this issue!

Superfund laws were created in the 1980s to provide for clean-up of industrial toxic waste sites and chemical spills.  Opponents of animal agriculture want to apply Superfund laws to livestock operations because of manure emissions.  CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act) and EPCRA (Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act) already contain provisions exempting fertilizer and other substances used in agricultural operations from their regulations.

NCBA Members Prepare for Senate Farm Bill Field Hearings: The Senate Ag Committee will host a series of field hearings on farm bill development in mid-August and NCBA cattle producer-members have been called on to testify. 

• Oregon producer Sharon Livingston will testify Tuesday, August 15 in Redmond, Ore.
• Nebraska producer Jay Wolf will testify Wednesday, August 16 in Grand Island, Neb.
• Montana producer Bill Donald will testify Thursday, August 17 in Great Falls, Mont.

For more information, visit:  http://agriculture.senate.gov. 

Cooperative Conservation Listening Sessions Scheduled:  Dates and locations for listening sessions on cooperative conservation and environmental partnerships were announced August 8 by the Secretaries of Interior, Commerce and Agriculture, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. 

Discussion will focus on how the government can better work with local communities and landowners to protect the environment and promote conservation.  In a joint statement, the agencies said they want to better respect the interests of people with ownership in land, water, and other natural resources.  Sessions are scheduled as follows:

• Helena, Mont. - August 14, 1:00pm (EPA Regional Administrator Robbie Roberts will attend.)
• Roanoke, Va. - August 14, 9:00am (Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett will attend.)
• Columbus, Ohio - August 21, 4:00pm (Scarlett will attend.)
• Redmond, Ore.  - August 22, 10:00am (Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne will attend.)
• Omaha, Neb. - August 24, 1:00pm (Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service Dale Hall will attend.)
• Muncie, Ind. August 26, 10:00am (Scarlett will attend.)
• Fairbanks, Alaska, August 28, 10:00am (Kempthorne will attend.)
• Jefferson City, Mo. - August 29, 1:00pm (USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Dave Tenny will attend.)
• Enid, Okla. - August 30, 1:00pm (Tenny will attend.)
• Redding, Calif. - September 13, 9:00am (USDA Under Secretary, Natural Resources and Environment Mark Rey will attend.)
• Colorado Springs, Colo.- September 15, 9:00am (Rey will attend.)
• Brewer, Maine - September 20, 4:00pm (Kempthorne will attend.)
• Brunswick, Ga. - September 21, 1:00pm (Hall will attend.)
• Colton, Calif. - September 28, 10:00am (Kempthorne will attend.)

Death Tax Update:  The U.S. Senate on Aug. 3 once again rejected legislation that would have brought some relief to farmers and ranchers dealing with the Death Tax.  H.R. 5970, the Estate Tax and Extension of Tax Relief Act of 2006, was approved by the House on July 29, but failed in the Senate by a vote of 56-42.

NCBA says it was essentially a party-line vote, with four democrats voting for the bill (Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark, Ben Nelson D-Neb., Bill Nelson D-Fla. and Robert Byrd D-W.V.), two Republicans voting against the bill (Chaffee, R-R.I. and Voinovich R-Ohio), and two democrats not voting (Baucus, D-Mont. and Lieberman D-Conn.).  Majority Leader Frist changed his vote at the last minute to vote against the bill, not because he doesn't support it, but to preserve his procedural right to bring the bill up again at any time.

H.R. 5970 represented an effort that wouldn’t have achieved full and permanent repeal, but would have: phased in an exemption level of $5 million per person/$10 million per couple by 2015; taxed estates over the exemption level at capital gains rate (currently at 15 percent, but scheduled to increase to 20 percent in 2010); and taxed estates valued at over $25 million at a fixed rates of 30 percent.  Under this bill, estate values and exemption levels are indexed to inflation, and the "stepped-up" basis provision would have been retained. 

NCBA supported H.R. 5970 as a small step toward easing the tax burden on U.S. ranchers, but remains committed to full and permanent repeal of the Death Tax. “Personally, I think Congress can do better than this,” said Jay Truitt, NCBA vice president of government affairs.  “NCBA has made it perfectly clear to Congress that we will only be fully satisfied with full and permanent repeal.”  NCBA has worked for decades on this issue.  The Death Tax is scheduled to reach full repeal by 2010, but in 2011 the exemption level returns to $1 million with a tax rate of 55 percent of total assets when the business owner dies. 

J.B. Penn Announces Departure from USDA:  Dr. J.B. Penn, USDA Under Secretary of Agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services, announced plans to resign his position effective at the end of August to return to the private sector.  Penn has served in this post since May of 2001. He has overseen the activities of the Farm Service Agency, Foreign Agricultural Service and Risk Management Agency, as well as USDA’s participation in the WTO Doha Round negotiations and other trade agreements. 

"Coming into this appointment, Dr. Penn was widely considered a seasoned trade and farm policy expert in Washington. Through his tenure he has experienced some of the most difficult agricultural trade challenges in our history with BSE, Avian Influenza, soybean rust and the Doha Round of WTO negotiations,” said NCBA’s Chief Economist Gregg Doud.

“Despite these challenges, Dr. Penn's leadership and effort on behalf of U.S. cattlemen has been extraordinary, particularly in reopening export markets for U.S. beef. He has earned the utmost respect from cattlemen everywhere, and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors."

Knight Confirmed by Senate:  The Senate confirmed Bruce Knight August 4 to be the U.S. Agriculture Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs.  In this job, Knight will take charge of implementing a national livestock tracking system.  Currently Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Knight says development of a successful voluntary tracking system would be "one of the highest priorities on my desk."  A third-generation rancher and farmer and lifelong conservationist, Mr. Knight is a native of South Dakota.  “Bruce Knight comes from a ranching background and he is aware of the challenges ranchers face everyday,” says NCBA’s Executive Director of Regulatory Affairs Gary Weber.  “He has been in Washington for a while now and he certainly knows how to develop and implement policy in today’s difficult political environment.  We have enjoyed a positive relationship with Bruce in the past, and we look forward to working with him in his new post.”

U.S. BSE Surveillance:  USDA’s Enhanced BSE Surveillance Program continues to test targeted animals identified as most likely to have the disease.  Since June 1, 2004, the program has tested 775,271 cattle and has found only two confirmed cases, evidence that our safeguards are working and the prevalence of BSE in the United States is extremely low.  Testing 268,500 animals can detect BSE at a rate of 1 in 10 million adult cattle at a 99 percent confidence level. 

Media Contact:
Tanya Augustson or Karen Batra at 202-347-0228; taugustson@beef.org or kbatra@beef.org