Colin Woodall, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Senior Vice President for Governmental Affairs, was on hand during the 2016 Cattle Industry Convention to discuss several pieces of legislation related to policy and trade that the association will focus on in 2016.
A major policy issue of importance to NCBA is the conflict that has formed related to USDA’s interest in allowing imports of Brazilian and Argentinian beef.
“It’s not a trade issue, its an animal health issue, and that’s the way we’ve always approached this,” said Woodall. “One of the things that we were able to do in the Omnibus bill was get language that truly spells out the Congressional intent on what they want USDA to do when looking at other countries and trying to approve other countries to export product into the United States, which we had not had before. So this is a big win for us, to make sure that the process has been fixed and we’re communicating on the same wavelength.”
Going into 2016, NCBA plans to put focus on several federal lands issues, most specifically the Antiquities Act, and also plans to pursue reforms to the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
“The Antiquities act is important because it allows the president to go in and lock up millions of acres of land without any Congressional oversight, and that’s just wrong,” said Woodall. “And we need to reform the ESA because we have been so successful in keeping the Sage Grouse and the Lesser Prairie Chicken from being listed, which gives us some more momentum to be able to get even more fixes done in 2016.”
Listen to Jamie’s full interview with Colin where he also discusses trade, tax extenders and the endangered species act:
Interview with Colin Woodall, NCBA
Photos from the Convention: 2016 2016 Cattle Industry Convention Photo Album
