Today, thousands of independent U.S. cattle producers who are members of R-CALF USA expressed their heartfelt gratitude to a bipartisan group of nine U.S. senators who courageously stepped forward this afternoon to file a Joint Resolution of Disapproval to the Final Rule issued by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Dec. 29, 2004, that would reopen the Canadian border to live cattle and additional beef products on March 7, 2005.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., led the charge, and others as well stepped forward to protect both the U.S. cattle herd and U.S. consumers from the introduction of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) into the United States.
Other senators who took the lead on this critical issue included: Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
Montana's junior Senator Conrad Burns seems to be missing from this list of courageous Senators. I guess the cattle industry in Montana isn't important to him. He's proved it more than once like when he voted to kill the Country of Origin Labeling program that the cattle industry in the state wanted. With this kind of help who needs enemies.
His enemies might have said before that he talked rather too much; but now he has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful. Sydney Smith
