To:                  R-CALF USA Members, Affiliates, and Friends

From:            Bill Bullard, CEO

Date:              May 20, 2021

Subject:          We have 10 Days, Please Help  

 Background:  Yesterday, U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) and U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) began circulating a joint letter to be sent to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. The letter available here describes the serious crisis in the cattle industry that also is causing serious harm to consumers.

This is perhaps the most important joint letter ever to be circulated in Congress in the past 100 years about our broken cattle and beef markets. It holds promise to cause our federal government to take immediate action. But only if many more U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives join the letter.

Today, R-CALF USA launched a nationwide drive to get 200 members of Congress, both from the Senate and the House, to sign the letter within the next 10 days.

Action:  Here’s the step-by-step plan that we need you to help us with:

Step 1:

  1. Download the bipartisan letter here.
  2. Call each of your Senators and your Representative and ask for the email address you can use to send them the letter. (You can connect with your members by calling the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and asking for them by name.)
  3. While on the call, tell each of your congressional members that the future of your cattle industry and food security for consumers depends on them agreeing to sign onto the letter.
  4. Send your congressional members the letter with a note urging them to contact either Senator Rounds or Senator Smith’s office to join the letter.
  5. Call them back the next day and ask if they had decided to support the U.S. cattle industry and consumers by joining the letter.

Step 2:

  1. Contact your state and local elected officials here – your state senators and representatives from your district – and ask for their email address so you can send them the Rounds/Smith letter.
  2. While on the call, ask your local elected officials to personally contact your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative to urge them to immediately join the Rounds/Smith letter.
  3. Follow up with them the next day to learn if they made the call and if they were successful.

Step 3:

  1. Send the Rounds/Smith letter to your friends and family members in other states. Ask them to send the letter to their U.S. Senators and U.S. Representative and urge them to join the letter.
  2. Think of anyone else that you have contacts with that you can enlist to help get the message to other congressional members, particularly those from urban areas, so they too will join the letter.

Step 4:

  1. Join us on our nightly conference calls that will begin tomorrow, Friday, at 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time. The call-in information is:

Number:              515-604-9911

Code:                    211 124#

  1. We will hold these nightly conference calls each night for the next 10 days, or until we reach our goal of 200 members of Congress on the letter.

Important: History shows we can only fix our cattle and beef market once every 100 years. The last time happened 100 years ago in September 1921 when the Packers and Stockyards Act was passed. Never before have two Senators asked us to help them educate their colleagues regarding how bad this crisis is for both producers and consumers and how important it is for Congress and the federal government to take immediate action.

This is our time to fix our industry. This bipartisan letter can make it happen. Nothing we have done, nor nothing we are doing right now, is as important as getting 200 members of Congress on this letter.

Thank you for your help! You can check on the progress of the letter by going to www.r-calfusa.com, where we will be updating each day.

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R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is the largest producer-only lobbying and trade association representing U.S. cattle producers. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. Visit www.r-calfusa.com or, call 406-252-2516 for more information.