Contact Congress - R-CALF USA

Competition Issues

Action Alert: Send a Letter to President Trump, Your Two Senators, and Your Congressman or Congresswoman.

We need everyone to send a written letter to President Trump and each of your two Senators and to your Congressman or Congresswoman by the end of next week (by March 6). Yes, we must do this “old school” – written letters sent via U.S. Mail. Read R-CALF USA’s entire Action Alert here.

You may draft your own letter or use all or some of the template letter available here. The important thing is that they all receive a written letter from you stating clearly that you want them to introduce new legislation to restore Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (M-COOL) for beef.

In addition, we would like you to attach the document we prepared that shows them exactly how they can pass a new M-COOL bill without awakening the feared World Trade Organization (WTO). The document we want you to attach is titled Restoring Mandatory COOL for Beef Without Running Afoul of the WTO’s Adverse Ruling and is available here.

Good luck with your letters and thank you for your ongoing support. Share this with your friends, neighbors and anyone you do business with and ask them to send their own letters. We’re going to win this! And please continue with your calls and emails until M-COOL for beef is reinstated!

Updated 2.28.2020

Call And Email Your U.S. Senators and Representative:

Commit to working one-on-one with each of your Senators and Representative. Call them by phone, follow-up with an e-mail, and hold their feet to the fire (meaning you will want to call each of them on a regular basis until these initiatives are complete), as they are being constantly pressured by powerful opposition that wants Congress to vote against you. You can reach each of your congressional members’ D.C. offices by calling 202-224-3121 and asking for your members by name and/or contact them via e-mail in the links below as well as contact your members’ state offices.

Inform your members of Congress or their staff that you are an independent business man or woman that raises cattle, that these initiatives are needed despite what other groups have told them, and that these issues are just too important for them not to give their full and immediate support.

Here’s What To Ask:

For Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling:

In a cordial but firm way:

1. Ask Congress to support Senate Resolution No. 391 (S. Res. 391) calling for the reinstatement of Country-of-Origin Labeling for beef. A full copy of Senate Resolution No. 391 is available here. You can follow up to see if they support S. Res. 391 here.

2. Ask Congress to sponsor new legislation to fully restore Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (M-COOL) for beef. Ask them to review R-CALF USA’s paper ‘Restoring Mandatory COOL for Beef While Mindful of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Adverse Ruling’ available here. Let the R-CALF USA office know if one or both of your Senators and/or Representative says they will sponsor new legislation to restore Mandatory COOL for beef.

Here are whitepapers to provide to your Congressional members to respond to common M-COOL concerns:

- They say there is nothing they can do because of the World Trade Organization Ruling – Ask them to review R-CALF USA’s paper ‘Restoring Mandatory COOL for Beef While Mindful of the WTO’s Adverse Ruling’ available here.
- They say they support a voluntary COOL program such as the U.S. Beef Integrity Act – Ask them to review R-CALF USA’s ‘Recent History of Failed Voluntary COOL Programs’ available here.

For Beef Checkoff Reform:

In a cordial but firm way:

3. Ask Congress to support H.R. 5563 – Opportunities for Fairness in Farming Act of 2020, to prevent USDA checkoff programs from 1) paying organizations that lobby on agricultural issues 2) prohibit anticompetitive behavior 3) ban activity that involves a conflict of interest 4) require audits to ensure compliance. A full copy of the H.R. 5563 Opportunities for Fairness in Farm Act of 2020 is available here.

Updated 2.24.2020

Submit Comments to the USDA:

R-CALF USA urges all of its members to submit public comments by the March 13, 2020 deadline. Members are encouraged to think about examples of preferences or advantages that would benefit only some feeders at the expense of those who do not receive such preference or advantage. As well as examples of prejudices or disadvantages that only some cattle feeders would be subjected to while others are not.

Here are some ideas for agreements or conduct that should be unlawful:

A contract not based on price, such as a cost-plus contract.
A contract that requires feedlots to sell all their cattle to a single packer.
A contract that guarantees to limit a feeder’s losses, such as a stop-loss contract.
A per head or per pound bonus for selling exclusively to a single packer.
A retaliatory action by a packer because the feeder complained or sold to a different packer.
A refusal to pay market price for slaughter-ready cattle.
A contract to buy only if the feeder keeps feeding the cattle beyond their optimal weight.
A refusal to provide carcass information if such information is provided to others.
An offer to finance feeder cattle and or feed at special terms.
A refusal to buy on a live-weight basis when the packer buys on a live-weight basis from other feeders.

You may have other examples to include in your comments. For certain, your comments should clearly state that the proposed rule must state that a violation of the undue preference prohibition can occur even if the conduct cannot be demonstrated to harm the competitiveness of the entire industry.

To submit your comments by the March 13, 2020 deadline, the USDA requires all comments to be submitted through the Federal e-rulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Your comments should reference the docket number docket number and the date and page number of the Federal Register. So, here is what to write at the beginning of your comments:

RE: Docket No. AMS–FTTP–18–0101, 85 Fed. Reg., 1771-1783, Jan. 13, 2020

To view the actual proposed rule, go to http://www.regulations.gov and type in: AMS-FTTP-18-0101.

Good luck with your comments and thank you for your ongoing support.

Updated 2.21.2020