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Washington Countdown of R-CALF USA Issues
Week 19
July 20, 2007
Bill Bullard, CEO
Thanks to all of you, R-CALF USA won a pivotal battle over country-of-origin labeling (COOL), and we did it on the home turf of our principal opponents – meatpackers, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC). We had help in this successful effort and it’s important that we acknowledge our coalition members that were instrumental in our victory. While I’m not much of a story teller, here’s a story worth telling:
For the past several weeks, the meatpackers, NCBA, and the NPPC were lobbying members of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee to either repeal completely or significantly weaken the 2002 COOL law. You will recall that even the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee appeared willing to modify the COOL law to accommodate concerns raised by our opponents regarding the verification of live cattle origins, labeling of ground beef, and labeling cattle imported for feeding. Before this week, it appeared the anti-COOL groups had the advantage.
During this same time, however, members of R-CALF USA and members of several other organizations, including the National Farmers Union and consumer groups such as Food and Water Watch, were countering the political strength of our opponents with the inherent strength of Congress’ constituents – farmers, ranchers, and consumers – who were making phone calls and sending faxes and e-mails.
By Tuesday of this week, the day the House Agriculture Committee began its full mark-up of the 2007 Farm Bill, the anti-COOL opponents still held their advantage and they drafted a 13-page amendment that would have gutted the COOL law.
But outside of Congress, COOL was gaining the attention of the national media due to the continuing discoveries of tainted food products from China. The CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight show took up the COOL banner and addressed the COOL issue in three televised segments, which began Monday night.
R-CALF USA member Ken Knuppe, South Dakota, called me Tuesday morning after he had watched the first Lou Dobbs segment and suggested that R-CALF USA get on the Lou Dobbs show. I told Kenny we were on his show a few years ago when R-CALF USA first filed its lawsuit against USDA, but we haven’t been successful in our recent efforts. Nonetheless, I asked R-CALF USA Communications Coordinator Shae Dodson if she’d give it another try.
Meanwhile, R-CALF USA member John Francis, Wyoming, accompanied me to D.C. to attend the House Agriculture Committee meetings and to continue lobbying for our members’ policies. John and I conducted four congressional office visits between Agriculture Committee breaks beginning on Wednesday. During one of these office meetings, we are asked if R-CALF USA was responsible for the piles of faxes and e-mails that were being sent to the congressional office. My response was that the answer depended on what type of messages the office was receiving. The Legislative Assistant said the messages said to support COOL, competition reforms, and, don’t tie COOL to animal identification. This is clear evidence that R-CALF USA members are actively working to improve their industry by individually helping to educate Congress. And, their efforts are having a positive impact on our industry!
Also on Wednesday, several events occurred: 1) the opponents said they had enough votes to pass their 13-page anti-COOL amendment that would have allowed beef from imported cattle to bear a USA label. 2) Shae Dodson successfully scheduled an R-CALF USA interview with Lou Dobbs for Thursday. 3) The Lou Dobbs Tonight show called R-CALF USA asking us to review its story line for the Wednesday night segment, which story line R-CALF USA modified. 4) Lou Dobbs ran the Wednesday night COOL segment, this time criticizing the Administration, Congress and the NCBA for delaying implementation of COOL and calling NCBA’s Jay Truitt “All bull and no beef.” 5) The National Farmers Union provided the members of the Agriculture Committee with a copy of the Lou Dobbs Tonight Show. 6) Members of R-CALF USA, NFU, and consumer groups continued making calls to Congressional members. 7) The Agriculture Committee continued its mark up of the Farm Bill until about 1:00 in the morning. 8) NFU and R-CALF USA agreed on principles for a new amendment that would essentially put into law the steps USDA must follow when implementing COOL, thus limiting USDA’s rule-writing discretion. This new amendment was requested by the House Agriculture Committee Chairman.
By Thursday morning, the anti-COOL supporters were no longer certain they had the votes to pass their anti-COOL amendment. The Chairman requested that NFU and a representative of the anti-COOL groups meet face-to-face to incorporate the principles of a new amendment to limit USDA’s rule-writing discretion. NFU consulted with R-CALF USA and other COOL Coalition members throughout this process. Later in the day, while the Agriculture Committee was still meeting, R-CALF USA was featured on the Lou Dobbs Tonight show, along with a representative of the NFU and the consumer group, Food and Water Watch. After this third pro-COOL segment on national prime-time television, the support for the anti-COOL amendment was no longer sufficient for the amendment to even be introduced. Instead, the Chairman announced that both sides would continue working on a new amendment, containing the principles for specifying how COOL is to be implemented; and, he obtained a positive voice vote on those principles by the Committee. The understanding was that the actual language would be crafted after the Agriculture Committee mark up session was over.
With NFU taking the lead in the face-to-face negotiations with the anti-COOL group, R-CALF USA’s outside counsel, attorney Elizabeth Drake, represented the pro-COOL interests in the amendment drafting process while all the anti-COOL interests designated a single attorney to represent them. It was agreed that each side (the pro-COOL and the anti-COOL) would each designate only one attorney.
The process of negotiating language for the new amendment ended just now, at 9:15 p.m. on Friday night. R-CALF USA and the NFU worked together to develop language that would benefit U.S. farmers and Ranchers, though the final decision was made by the Agriculture Committee Staff Members who were under deadline to submit language for the amendment so the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill could be completed in time to be eligible for full House floor action on Thursday, July 26.
It was a race to the finish line tonight and R-CALF USA and NFU jointly put forth a good faith effort to include everything needed to ensure the proper implementation of COOL. I am reviewing the final draft of the language approved by the Committee staff right now and will report its strengths and weaknesses to you next week.
Here is a summary of what transpired over the past four days:
You won on COOL and you won Big!
U.S. farmers, ranchers, and consumer groups held the anti-COOL lobby at bay, preventing them from introducing a disastrous anti-COOL amendment.
As a substitute for the anti-COOL amendment, R-CALF USA and NFU helped Congress write a new amendment designed to ensure that USDA would not write unworkable rules to implement COOL.
Amidst all of this, a bill to allow the interstate shipment of state inspected beef was included in the Farm Bill. (There are some details in this bill that need to be changed.)
Unfortunately, the only competition reform that was included in the draft Farm Bill – a reform dealing with arbitration clauses that indirectly affected the cattle industry – did not survive the Farm Bill mark up.
Next Steps:
We must identify the weaknesses in the final new COOL amendment and seek to correct them when the Farm Bill is considered by the full House beginning on July 26.
We must continue to build support for all our issues in the U.S. Senate.
Thanks to all of you for your tremendous help. Congratulations!
Washington Countdown of R-CALF USA Issues
Week 19
July 20, 2007
Bill Bullard, CEO
Thanks to all of you, R-CALF USA won a pivotal battle over country-of-origin labeling (COOL), and we did it on the home turf of our principal opponents – meatpackers, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC). We had help in this successful effort and it’s important that we acknowledge our coalition members that were instrumental in our victory. While I’m not much of a story teller, here’s a story worth telling:
For the past several weeks, the meatpackers, NCBA, and the NPPC were lobbying members of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee to either repeal completely or significantly weaken the 2002 COOL law. You will recall that even the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee appeared willing to modify the COOL law to accommodate concerns raised by our opponents regarding the verification of live cattle origins, labeling of ground beef, and labeling cattle imported for feeding. Before this week, it appeared the anti-COOL groups had the advantage.
During this same time, however, members of R-CALF USA and members of several other organizations, including the National Farmers Union and consumer groups such as Food and Water Watch, were countering the political strength of our opponents with the inherent strength of Congress’ constituents – farmers, ranchers, and consumers – who were making phone calls and sending faxes and e-mails.
By Tuesday of this week, the day the House Agriculture Committee began its full mark-up of the 2007 Farm Bill, the anti-COOL opponents still held their advantage and they drafted a 13-page amendment that would have gutted the COOL law.
But outside of Congress, COOL was gaining the attention of the national media due to the continuing discoveries of tainted food products from China. The CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight show took up the COOL banner and addressed the COOL issue in three televised segments, which began Monday night.
R-CALF USA member Ken Knuppe, South Dakota, called me Tuesday morning after he had watched the first Lou Dobbs segment and suggested that R-CALF USA get on the Lou Dobbs show. I told Kenny we were on his show a few years ago when R-CALF USA first filed its lawsuit against USDA, but we haven’t been successful in our recent efforts. Nonetheless, I asked R-CALF USA Communications Coordinator Shae Dodson if she’d give it another try.
Meanwhile, R-CALF USA member John Francis, Wyoming, accompanied me to D.C. to attend the House Agriculture Committee meetings and to continue lobbying for our members’ policies. John and I conducted four congressional office visits between Agriculture Committee breaks beginning on Wednesday. During one of these office meetings, we are asked if R-CALF USA was responsible for the piles of faxes and e-mails that were being sent to the congressional office. My response was that the answer depended on what type of messages the office was receiving. The Legislative Assistant said the messages said to support COOL, competition reforms, and, don’t tie COOL to animal identification. This is clear evidence that R-CALF USA members are actively working to improve their industry by individually helping to educate Congress. And, their efforts are having a positive impact on our industry!
Also on Wednesday, several events occurred: 1) the opponents said they had enough votes to pass their 13-page anti-COOL amendment that would have allowed beef from imported cattle to bear a USA label. 2) Shae Dodson successfully scheduled an R-CALF USA interview with Lou Dobbs for Thursday. 3) The Lou Dobbs Tonight show called R-CALF USA asking us to review its story line for the Wednesday night segment, which story line R-CALF USA modified. 4) Lou Dobbs ran the Wednesday night COOL segment, this time criticizing the Administration, Congress and the NCBA for delaying implementation of COOL and calling NCBA’s Jay Truitt “All bull and no beef.” 5) The National Farmers Union provided the members of the Agriculture Committee with a copy of the Lou Dobbs Tonight Show. 6) Members of R-CALF USA, NFU, and consumer groups continued making calls to Congressional members. 7) The Agriculture Committee continued its mark up of the Farm Bill until about 1:00 in the morning. 8) NFU and R-CALF USA agreed on principles for a new amendment that would essentially put into law the steps USDA must follow when implementing COOL, thus limiting USDA’s rule-writing discretion. This new amendment was requested by the House Agriculture Committee Chairman.
By Thursday morning, the anti-COOL supporters were no longer certain they had the votes to pass their anti-COOL amendment. The Chairman requested that NFU and a representative of the anti-COOL groups meet face-to-face to incorporate the principles of a new amendment to limit USDA’s rule-writing discretion. NFU consulted with R-CALF USA and other COOL Coalition members throughout this process. Later in the day, while the Agriculture Committee was still meeting, R-CALF USA was featured on the Lou Dobbs Tonight show, along with a representative of the NFU and the consumer group, Food and Water Watch. After this third pro-COOL segment on national prime-time television, the support for the anti-COOL amendment was no longer sufficient for the amendment to even be introduced. Instead, the Chairman announced that both sides would continue working on a new amendment, containing the principles for specifying how COOL is to be implemented; and, he obtained a positive voice vote on those principles by the Committee. The understanding was that the actual language would be crafted after the Agriculture Committee mark up session was over.
With NFU taking the lead in the face-to-face negotiations with the anti-COOL group, R-CALF USA’s outside counsel, attorney Elizabeth Drake, represented the pro-COOL interests in the amendment drafting process while all the anti-COOL interests designated a single attorney to represent them. It was agreed that each side (the pro-COOL and the anti-COOL) would each designate only one attorney.
The process of negotiating language for the new amendment ended just now, at 9:15 p.m. on Friday night. R-CALF USA and the NFU worked together to develop language that would benefit U.S. farmers and Ranchers, though the final decision was made by the Agriculture Committee Staff Members who were under deadline to submit language for the amendment so the House version of the 2007 Farm Bill could be completed in time to be eligible for full House floor action on Thursday, July 26.
It was a race to the finish line tonight and R-CALF USA and NFU jointly put forth a good faith effort to include everything needed to ensure the proper implementation of COOL. I am reviewing the final draft of the language approved by the Committee staff right now and will report its strengths and weaknesses to you next week.
Here is a summary of what transpired over the past four days:
You won on COOL and you won Big!
U.S. farmers, ranchers, and consumer groups held the anti-COOL lobby at bay, preventing them from introducing a disastrous anti-COOL amendment.
As a substitute for the anti-COOL amendment, R-CALF USA and NFU helped Congress write a new amendment designed to ensure that USDA would not write unworkable rules to implement COOL.
Amidst all of this, a bill to allow the interstate shipment of state inspected beef was included in the Farm Bill. (There are some details in this bill that need to be changed.)
Unfortunately, the only competition reform that was included in the draft Farm Bill – a reform dealing with arbitration clauses that indirectly affected the cattle industry – did not survive the Farm Bill mark up.
Next Steps:
We must identify the weaknesses in the final new COOL amendment and seek to correct them when the Farm Bill is considered by the full House beginning on July 26.
We must continue to build support for all our issues in the U.S. Senate.
Thanks to all of you for your tremendous help. Congratulations!