WASHINGTON- Last week, US Senator Roger Marshall, (R- Kan.) along with some other Republican colleagues, introduced the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act.

The legislation challenges California’s Proposition 12 animal confinement law, which the US Supreme Court recently upheld.

“The United States is constantly faced with non-tariff trade barriers from protectionist countries, hurting American agriculture’s access to new markets,” Marshall said. “The last thing we need is a big state like California imposing its will on ag-heavy states like Kansas with regulations that will also restrict our ability to trade among the states. “This is a matter of state’s rights. If California wants to regulate agriculture in its own state, that’s fine, but California’s rules should not apply to Kansas, whose legislatures never approved of these regulations.”

Other senators backing the EATS Act include Senators Chuck Grassley (Iowa), John Cornyn (Tx.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Deb Fischer (Neb.), Kevin Cramer (ND), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Eric Schmidt (Mo.), Tedd Budd (NC) and Bill Hagerty (Tenn.)

The Prop 12 ballot initiative was approved by California voters in 2018 and barred the sales of eggs or raw pork or veal sourced from animals housed in ways that do not meet California’s minimum standards.

Under Prop 12, producers of veal calves are required to house animals with at least 43 square feet of usable floor space per calf. Producers of sows are required to provide a minimum of 24 square feet of usable space per animal to comply with the law and laying hens are required to be raised cage-free.

Republican Governors recently sent a letter to Congress calling for a passage of a new bill regarding Prop 12.