House members from more-rural districts divided on proposed USDA livestock rules

Members of Congress with more rural constituents than average are divided about the U.S. Department of Agriculture's proposed rule that would govern livestock markets, reports the Daily Yonder. "Early this month, 115 members of Congress — 46 Democrats and 69 Republicans, largely from rural districts — wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack opposing the rule," Yonder Co-Editor Bill Bishop reports. "Vilsack wrote back saying the rules were needed." USDA says the rules, which we previously reported here, intended "to turn the clock back by stemming the decline of independent livestock producers," Bishop writes.

Of the 190 representatives from Congressional districts where more than the national average of 21 percent of the population lives in rural areas, 44 percent signed the letter to Vilsack. Rural members from 106 districts did not sign the letter, while members from 31 urban districts did. Support for the letter also varied across regions. "Representatives in the upper Great Plains didn't sign the letter," Bishop writes. "Those in cattle areas in the lower Plains did. Alabama lawmakers didn't sign. Missouri and Arkansas legislators did." While the majority of rural representatives didn't sign the letter, several important ones did, including the current chair of the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota and the ranking Republican and likely chairman come January, Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma. (Yonder map)

USDA is accepting public comment on the proposal until Nov. 22 Debate has grown heated as the deadline approaches, Bishop reports. R-CALF, a group of mainly small cattle ranchers, reported that the 115 signers of the letter to Vilsack "had received over $48 million in contributions from businesses or individuals connected with agriculture," Bishop writes.

The National Farmers Union also supports the rules, but larger groups, such as the National Beef Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, oppose them. “Secretary Vilsack’s response may work for bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., but for those of us out in the countryside, he has done nothing more than ignore the pleas of thousands of cattle producers,"  NCBA President Steve Foglesong said. "His refusal leaves my fellow cattle producers and me asking, 'What are they trying to hide?'" (Read more)