Continuing to Represent Cattle Raisers in Our Capitols
By Pete Bonds, president, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association
Pete Bonds, Saginaw I
T IS MY PLEASURE TO PROVIDE THE MEMBERS OF TEXAS and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) with information on the activities of
your offi cers, and on the issues that are of great importance to us at this time. Since the fi rst of the year, your offi cers have
traveled to Washington, D.C., and to Austin, rep- resenting your interests as we visited with dozens of law makers. Our fi rst trip was to Washington, D.C., the fi rst
week in January. Richard Thorpe, Bobby McKnight, Eldon White,
and the members of the TSCRA government and public affairs staff joined me that week to attend the swearing in of our good friend and fellow Tex- an, Mike Conaway, as the chairman of House Ag Committee. His service in this position will be very good
for the cattle industry as a whole, and for us as an organization. We were very pleased to join in the celebration
of his appointment. While we were in Washington, we visited more
than 35 members of the Texas Congressional del- egation. In fact, Eldon and I even went to an event for
newly-elected Colorado Senator Cory Gardner. We supported his campaign with a PAC contribution. The fi rst thing that was confi rmed to us was that
the Environmental Protection Agency has not backed off of their effort to control all waters of the U.S. When Congress passed the omnibus spending
bill at the end of last year, they directed the EPA to abandon their guidance document regarding the waters of the United States. But that didn’t affect the EPA’s proposed rule that
would give them the authority they seek to control your puddles and ditches. We were told just last week that the EPA will make
the rules “reasonable.” And they even provided photos to show us what they will regulate. Does that make you feel comfortable? As I’ve said many times before, the EPA will not
be satisfi ed until they can control the water that drips from the brim of my hat! The comment period on the proposed rule is closed,
and we thank all of you who took the time to make your voices heard by submitting comments. Now, we wait to see what the EPA will decide to do. Several of the legislators we visited in DC suggest
that the EPA will move forward — adopting the revised rule as a fi nal rule this spring — and then proceeding with implementation. This may end up in court. Cattle Raisers are strongly
opposed to the EPA’s effort and will continue to fi ght them on this issue.
Dietary guidelines While we were in D.C., we also visited with folks
who were close to the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee work. They told us that the committee report was soon
to be released and that it might be negative to meat consumption. They were right. The report was released a few weeks ago, and as
predicted, the committee’s recommendations are for Americans to “eat less meat.” While they do not support their recommendation
with nutritional science, they assert that we should eat less meat because of environmental sustainability reasons.
56 The Cattleman June 2015
thecattlemanmagazine.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116