Pusback on OFF Act

Tanner Beymer, National Cattlmens Beef Association, senior director of government affairs, says they're opposed to the Opportunities in Fairness and Farming Act otherwise known as the OFF Act.

"A fancy title but the bill itself is nothing more than a direct attack on commodity checkoff programs including the Beef Checkoff. One of the amendments that we're tracking on the House Appropriations front this week, is an amendment that is very similar to that office act that would attack a Checkoff Program. So we're co-leading a coalition of about 30 National Agriculture groups, weighing in with Congress this week in opposition to talking about how important commodity checkoff programs are, how transparent they are, how safe and compliant they are given USDA oversight, and how overwhelmingly popular and successful they have been with their respective producers over the years."

Beymer says that NCBA is always open to improving the checkoff program but this bill's lawmaker sponsors are being influenced by radical animal rights groups who want to eradicate animal agriculture. US representatives Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina and Dina Titus, a Democrat from Nevada, along with US Senators Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, introduced this by bicarmel bipartisan legislation.