A resolution has been introduced in Congress to block a USDA rule mandating electronic identification (EID) ear tags for bison and cattle moving between states.
The rule is designed to speed the tracking of cattle during a disease outbreak to “help ranchers and farmers get back to selling their products more quickly,” said Michael Watson, administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., and 14 colleagues are co-sponsoring the House resolution to overturn the rule under the Congressional Review Act. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., introduced a companion resolution in the Senate.
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Hageman called the rule an “unfunded mandate (that) raises serious privacy concerns for ranchers and their herds, with the potential to lock ranchers out of their traditional markets.” She worries that the rule would give the federal government too much power, “which the American ranching community will have to pay for.”
Cattle producers are divided on the issue; the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association supports the rule, issued in April, while the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund (R-CALF) USA opposes it.
CRA resolutions must be passed by both chambers and signed by the president to nullify a rule.
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