Today, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) thanked members of the House Appropriations Committee for advancing the Fiscal Year 2024 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration appropriations bill, which will provide funding for essential programs that support cattle producers while defending against overreaching regulations.
“We are pleased the House Appropriations Committee showed such strong support for a number of cattle industry priorities, including protecting producers’ ability to capture premiums by nullifying USDA’s overreaching Packers and Stockyards rules and lowering cattle producers’ cost burden in implementing animal disease traceability,” said NCBA Senior Director of Government Affairs Tanner Beymer. “NCBA thanks Chairwoman Granger and Chairman Harris for their leadership and urge swift adoption of this bill on the House floor.”
The bill is a win for cattle producers and would defund the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s harmful Packers and Stockyards rules. These rules would open cattle producers to frivolous complaints and lawsuits and, if implemented, would harm cattle producers’ ability to capture premiums from their high-quality cattle.
Additionally, the bill would provide $10 million for the purchase of electronic identification (EID) tags and related infrastructure to support the implementation of animal disease traceability. Several other industry priorities are included in the legislation such as reports on cell-cultured meat, the Cattle Contracts Library Pilot Program, and the Asian Longhorned Tick, and funding for the National Animal Health Laboratory Network, feral swine eradication, and healthy dog importation screenings.
The bill now goes to the full House of Representatives for consideration. NCBA urges both the House and the Senate to support these key agricultural provisions.
