4/18/07 Legislator praise

Legislator Praise When credit or praise is due, then it should be acknowledge. I'm Jeff Kane; I'll be back in one minute to hand out that praise. Recently, I wrote an article suggesting some government or legislative officials seem to care more about other countries' producers than U.S. producers. Well I'm proud to say we have representatives and senators who do care about the U.S. producers and U.S. industries. The United States Department of Agriculture is pushing very hard to allow cattle over thirty months of age to enter the U.S. The concern with this is Canada has a much higher incidence of BSE in their cattle herds that we do in the United States. Four bipartisan U.S. senators sent a letter to the USDA stating their opposition to implementing Rule 2, which is importing Canadian cattle over thirty months of age. In March, fourteen U.S. representatives, again a bipartisan group, also sent a letter to the USDA stating their disapproval to Rule 2. These senators and representatives actually show a common sense attitude concerning U.S. trade procedures. Just a reminder, it was a Canadian cow imported to the U.S. that was diagnosed with BSE n 2003. This cost the U.S. and U.S. cattle producers a multi-billion dollar beef export market with foreign countries. We are just now making slow progress to regain those markets. We do not need another setback. I personally thank those legislators for caring about U.S. producers. I'm Jeff Keane. Western Livestock Reporter 4/4/07