09/01/06 So many issues, So little time

So many issues, so little time. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. After a month-long recess - Congress will return to Capitol Hill Tuesday with a lot of issues to cover in a short amount of time. In fact - members of Congress will only have a month before adjournment for the November elections - and there are a number of important issues left to cover. Several of those - according to R-CALF USA Director of Government Relations Jess Peterson - are important to the nation`s cattle producers - and therefore - R-CALF. PETERSON: We've got a full platter and we're going to cram for lack of a better term as much as we can here in this September when the session gets started back up again and see what all we can get passed because there's some very important legislation that's of a great interest both of a benefit and a concern of cattle producers. Peterson says it`s really difficult to guess which of these issues Congress will decide to tackle during the month of September. But he says one thing is for sure - legislation to ban horse slaughter - will come up - and will likely come up soon. PETERSON: Shooting right out of the gates is the ban on horse slaughter which is HR503 and R-Calf hasn't always been involved in issues such as this but any type of livestock ban on slaughter is something that make cattle producers very nervous so R-Calf took an aggressive step out of the shoots on this one and you know what, we are going to take a stance and work with a large majority of folks involved on this from a livestock producer angle and take the position of opposing this. According to Peterson - R-CALF will also be working to see that meat processed in states can be shipped out of state. That`s why he says R-CALF is supporting S. 3519 - legislation introduced by Utah Republican Orrin Hatch - that would allow for interstate shipment of meat - and in turn strengthen competition in the marketplace. PETERSON: Oddly enough, meat from Japan can be brought into this country and shipped easier than say some cattle beef that's been slaughtered in the state of Kansas so what this does is allow the interstate commerce of meats and that inspection so you can transport that meat and this is what is so critical to R-Calf. Keeping competition. Furthering the opportunity for packers, for niche markets, for your producers; have more options. More options going to give back more dollars to our producers. Peterson notes that the Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting Act of 1999 expired nearly a year ago. He says two Iowa Senators are working to bring that back - and in a way that`s good for. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.