WASHINGTON — In a combined resistance against an anti-checkoff amendment, 130 agriculture-related groups sent a letter to Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Sept. 26, urging Congress not to interfere with the programs.

The amendment in question was proposed by Representative Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) to modify the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

The proposed amendment states, “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to carry out any program established under a commodity promotion law (as such term is defined in section 501 of the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7401)).”

In their letter, the organizations expressed the importance of the checkoff programs and noted how Congress has supported them “multiple times by adopting legislation authorizing checkoffs requested by different producer groups.”

The checkoff programs are entirely funded and directed by producers themselves and not by taxpayers, the groups said.

The organizations opposed to Spartz’s amendment include the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) and the American Farm Bureau Federation, among many others.

“As a cattle producer, I am proud to pay into the Beef Checkoff because I know my $1 is doing more for our entire industry than I could do on my own,” said NCBA President Todd Wilkinson, a South Dakota cattle producer. “I urge Congress to stand with real farmers and ranchers over activists and reject Representative Spartz’s attack on checkoff programs. Our future depends on the investments we make now, and the Beef Checkoff is the strongest tool we have to keep beef on consumers’ plates, strengthening the cattle industry today and for the next generation.”

The recent letter to Congress was not the first stance trade groups took against the anti-checkoff amendment. In July, several groups, which again included NCBA and NPPC, issued a joint statement opposing the amendment.

At that time, Spartz released a comment on the pushback her proposal received.

"As a farmer myself, I understand the importance of promoting our commodities at home and abroad as well as more opportunities for smaller farmers,” she said in a statement from her office. “However, I see more and more corporate cronyism in agriculture with highly paid executives promoting just a few monopolies mostly owned by Brazil and China in some ag sectors, which are using child labor provided by Mexican cartels. We must demand transparency for roughly $1 billion in mandatory fees taken annually from farmers by the federal government and given to executives like USDA Secretary Vilsak who was paid about $1 million per year between his Obama and Biden jobs by one of these boards.”

The checkoff programs are administered by the US Department of Agriculture and overseen by farmers and ranchers. The checkoff boards pool assessments from producers and use that funding to conduct research, raise consumer awareness and improve demand for agricultural products.