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).

USDA Announces BSE Surveillance Program Changes:  Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced today, July 20 that the USDA will transition testing levels in its BSE surveillance program to sample approximately 40,000 animals each year. 

USDA enhanced its BSE surveillance program on June 1, 2004 with the objective of more accurately determining the prevalence of BSE in the United States.  Under the enhanced surveillance program, USDA tested approximately 5,000 samples per week from animals identified as most likely to have the disease.  To date, the program has tested 759,307 cattle and has found only two confirmed cases.  Testing 268,500 animals can detect BSE at a rate of 1 in 10 million adult cattle at a 99 percent confidence level.  USDA says the new surveillance program will provide testing at a level ten times higher than the level recommended by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

“We know BSE is extremely rare in the United States,” says NCBA Executive Director of Regulatory Affairs Gary Weber. “The livelihood of cattle producers depends on delivering safe and wholesome food to dinner tables around the world and to our own families every day.  USDA’s announcement today provides even further assurance that we’re doing just that.”

Summer Conference Wrap Up:  NCBA cattle producer-members addressed current policy priorities at the 2006 Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Reno, Nevada., July 10-13 passing new resolutions and directives to make amendments to the 2006 Policy Agenda.  This summer, 11 interim resolutions, directives and recommendations were approved by the NCBA Board of Directors.  These will serve as interim policy until reviewed and voted on by NCBA members at the 2007 Cattle Industry Annual Convention scheduled for January 31 - February 3 in Nashville, Tenn. 

Included in the interim resolutions were these modifications made to policy in the areas of International Markets and Tax and Credit: 

• NCBA members passed a resolution supporting retaliatory measures against nations who close their borders to U.S. beef due to unscientific food safety concerns, administrative errors or a single shipment of beef not meeting agreed upon requirements.
• NCBA approved a resolution aimed at relieving the Death Tax burden from thousands of America’s farmers and ranchers. While NCBA still steadfastly supports full and permanent repeal of the Death Tax, cattlemen in attendance approved a directive providing NCBA with the flexibility to support a compromise measure, if it is the only option for reducing the uncertainty surrounding the current Death Tax timetable.

For more information, see our news release “U.S. Cattle Producers Take Action on Key Policy Issues” posted at www.beefusa.org.

Senate Introduces Superfund Bill:  Key members of the U.S. Senate are rallying in support of legislation to clarify that Congress never intended to regulate animal manure under Superfund laws.  S. 3681 was introduced July 18 by Senators Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and 21 other Senate co-sponsors.

The Superfund laws were created to:  provide for the cleanup of toxic waste dumps and hazardous chemical spills, to force reporting of releases of hazardous chemicals and to enable emergency response.  But opponents of animal agriculture want to apply Superfund laws to livestock operations because of manure emissions.  Superfund laws, 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. 

In the House, H.R. 4341 currently has 174 co-sponsors with Rep. John Peterson (R-Penn.) and Thelma Drake (R-Va.) signed on since last week.  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!

ESAP Regional Winners Announced:  The 2006 National Environmental Stewardship Award Program (ESAP) Regional Winners were announced last week, July 11, at the Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Reno.  Now in its 16th year, the ESAP program is sponsored by Dow AgroSciences, LCC and USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service and is administered by NCBA. 

The 2006 Regional ESAP Winners are...

• Region I:  Blight Family Farms in Albion, Mich.
• Region II:  Hayston Farms in Mansfield, Ga.
• Region III:  Clan Farms in Atlantic, Iowa
• Region IV:  San Pedro Ranch in Carrizo Springs, Texas
• Region V:  Thaler Land & Livestock in LaGrange, Wyo.
• Region VI:  Diablo Trust Ranches in Coconino County, Ariz.
• Region VII:  Brown’s Gelbvieh Ranch in Bismark, N.D.

The 2006 National Winner will be selected from one of the seven regional winners and revealed at the 2007 Cattle Industry Annual Convention in Nashville, Tenn. next February. For more information on the winning ranches, or to get photos for your publications, contact NCBA’s Washington office at 202-347-0228 or email Tanya Augustson at taugustson@beef.org or Karen Batra at kbatra@beef.org.

USDA Expands CRP Haying and Grazing To Help Producers Affected By Drought:  Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Conner announced July 13 the expansion of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acreage eligible for emergency haying and grazing for livestock producers in approved counties in Alabama, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming.  Further details are available on the Farm Service Agency (FSA) website at - http://www.fsa.usda.gov/pas. 

In related news, NCBA has developed a web-based resource so producers can access the latest drought information online.  This web page features a link to the U.S. drought monitor and the U.S. seasonal drought outlook, as well as information on how to contact your local FSA office and general FSA disaster assistance.  Visit http://hill.beef.org/drought.

NCBA President Testifies at Senate Farm Bill Field Hearing: NCBA President and Missouri cattleman Mike John testified July 17 at the Senate Ag Committee’s field hearing on farm bill development in Cape Girardeau, Mo. 
Future Senate Ag Committee field hearings on farm bill development include:

• Monday, July 24, 9 a.m. in Ankeny, Iowa
• Tuesday, August 15, 9 a.m. in Redmond, Ore.
• Wednesday, August 16, 9 a.m. in Grand Island, Neb.
• Thursday, August 17, 9 a.m. in Great Falls, Mont.

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

At last week’s 2006 Cattle Industry Summer Conference in Reno, NCBA members outlined NCBA's guiding principles and priorities in the 2007 Farm Bill, including specific priorities for natural resources and conservation, marketing, commodity programs, nutrition, credit, trade, research, energy, disaster assistance, animal activism, animal identification and animal health policy.  Visit www.beefusa.org for more information on this!

House Ag Committee Farm Bill Hearings:  Upcoming hearings on farm bill development before the House Ag Committee are scheduled for:

• Monday, July 24, 9 a.m. in Scottsburg, Ind.
• Monday, July 31, 9 a.m., in Wall, S.D.
• Monday, July 31, 9 a.m. in Sioux Center, Iowa

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

Peru Trade: NCBA submitted written testimony to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee this week regarding implementation of the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA). The Committee held a hearing last week during NCBA's summer conference, but written comments are accepted in lieu of a personal appearance.

NCBA members have been leaders in the promotion of reliable, free and fair trade across the globe. This is the best negotiated free trade agreement for U.S. beef to date, as it eliminates duties immediately on high quality beef, and reduces tariffs on all other products faster than ever before. However, without a comprehensive agreement that includes access for all of our safe U.S. beef products, it is not a commercially meaningful agreement for the U.S. beef industry.  We hope that Peru will follow through with its commitment to allow the OIE standard to prevail and accept all U.S. beef and beef products, as they committed to doing in the January 5, 2006 side letter.  NCBA remains committed to working with U.S. trade officials for meaningful access to the Peruvian marketplace.  If no meaningful access can be achieved, NCBA will have no choice other than to oppose the agreement when it comes to Congress. A copy of our comments is posted at www.beefusa.org (click on “Governmental Affairs” > “International Trade” > “Peru Trade”).

Grazing Regulations:  The Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published on July 12 their final grazing regulations that will improve the agency’s management of public lands grazing.  “We strongly support these regulations as an important effort to restore the balance between resource conservation and range management,” says Jeff Eisenberg, NCBA’s director of federal lands and executive director for the Public Lands Council.

 The new regulations which become effective August 11, 2006 will:

• authorize the BLM and a grazing permittee or lessee (or other cooperating party) to share title to future range improvements;
• phase in grazing-use decreases (as well as increases) of more than 10 percent over a five-year period;
• remove a restriction that has limited temporary non-use of a grazing permit to three consecutive years;
• require the use of existing or new monitoring data to make management decisions; and
• restore "preference" which is used to determine the stocking capacity for allotments. 

Public land ranchers control 107 million acres of private lands, and they greatly contribute to land management and conservation efforts on our nation’s public lands.  The biggest threat to wildlife and biodiversity is habitat fragmentation.  Ranchers play a key role in preserving open space and maintaining wilderness areas that could otherwise be subject to development in the rapidly growing West.  For more information on the final rules, visit  www.blm.gov.

Grazing Regs Subject to Lawsuit:  In related news, a group of five environmental groups have filed suit over the grazing regulations alleging that the rules violate NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969), FLPMA (Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976), ESA (the Endangered Species Act of 1973) and the Administrative Procedure Act. 

The Public Lands Council has decided to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of the BLM and the regulations.  Eisenberg says "these regulations are good for the land and good for the people who depend on it."

Canada Announces Lifting of Bluetongue Restrictions on U.S. Cattle Imports:  The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced on July 10 that it is eliminating all bluetongue-related import restrictions on U.S. ruminants.  This is obviously a long-awaited victory for U.S. cattle producers who have worked for decades to gain fuller access to the Canadian market for live cattle and breeding stock.  While this announcement is a critical step towards complete market access, NCBA and our affiliates will continue working with Canadian industry leaders and government officials to resolve anaplasmosis-related restrictions on our live cattle.  For more information on this announcement, visit:  http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/newcom/2006/20060710e.shtml.

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