09/26/06 R-CALF USA`s legislative agenda

American Rancher September 26, 2006 R-CALF USA's legislative agenda for the remainder of this congress was detailed for the Cattle Producers of Washington at their recent annual meeting. The update came from Jess Peterson, Director of Government Affairs for R-CALF USA in Washington D.C. In an interview Peterson explained they want to prevent some bad legislation as well as pass some good. Peterson: "The first and foremost is we are gonna hope, we are going to work that the horse slaughter does not come up. The ban on horse slaughter that passed the House into the Senate. We don't want that to be passed by the Senate so we are going to work extremely hard. Put pressure. The other bill that we think we have a chance of moving in both the House and Senate Interstate Meat Inspection bill. It's got great bipartisan support. I think we can move it. We need to move it. What this does is allow your small packers in states to be able to ship their beef out of state, interstate. It's got great support. We are going to try and move on that. And those are two of the biggest bills we are going to work on that we can be realistic that we can move on in this session that's left." Peterson says congress has now passed a mandatory price reporting bill and R-CALF may try and strengthen it next year in the farm bill. He wouldn't give any specifics but Peterson says the ag spending bill in the Senate may provide an opportunity to address some R-CALF trade issues. I'm Bob Hoff.