Bullard to Senators: 73 percent of lamb, 22 percent of beef is imported

The US Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights hosted several witnesses in a June 24, 2025, public hearing.

The hearing was titled, “Deregulation & Competition: Reducing Regulatory Burdens to Unlock Innovation and Spur New Entry.”

The subcommittee chairman, Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee as well as the vice chairman, Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and several other senators asked questions of the witnesses.

Senator Lee loosely focused the hearing on three topics: OFF Act, which would reform the checkoff programs; the Open America’s Water Act which would repeal the “Jones Act,” a federal restriction that has created a distortion in the market place that costs American consumers; and the Biosimilar Red Tape Elimination Act tackles artificial barriers in healthcare system.

Lee commented that the OFF Act, intended to bring oversight to mandatory commodity checkoff programs including the Beef Checkoff enjoys bipartisan support.

The OFF Act would, in his words, reform mandatory assessment programs by requiring transparent reporting, banning conflicts of interest and mandating regular audits.

Among the witnesses were four government attorneys…and the CEO of R-CALF USA, Bill Bullard. Lee asked Bullard to describe his concerns with the Beef Checkoff.

“The money has been funneled through organizations that  contrary to independent producers. So independent producers are forced to fund a tax on every animal sold, only for those funds to be used in the halls of Washington against their interests,” said Bullard.

“For example, our members fully support Country of Origin Labeling for beef and the organizations that are major recipients of the Beef Checkoff program are lobbying in Washington against that policy.”

Bullard commented that, while USDA which is charged with oversight of the Beef Checkoff, has been made aware of instances where Beef Checkoff contractors have spent money fraudulently, it has never taken steps to correct such activity.

 “USDA was well-aware of [inappropriate] actions. They did make some reforms, but they are inadequate to protect producers against the tax that funds policy initiatives,” said Bullard.

Senator Booker commented he was “shocked” with how “we are screwing over farmers and ranchers with legislation [that allows foreign beef to be labeled as USA beef]. Can you explain why COOL should be done right and why it’s essential for fair competition?” he asked Bullard.

“In any competitive market, you have symmetry and information between buyer and seller. Without COOL, the multinational meatpackers bring into the market and mask the origin of those products because they bear the USDA sticker, the same as the domestic product,” said Bullard

He also explained that, through de-regulation, the USDA’s standards for foreign meatpackers has been lowered so that foreign meatpackers no longer have to meet the same standards that US meatpackers do.

Bullard also commented on reforms to the Packers and Stockyard Act, which he said would also help return the cattle industry to a more fair and transparent market situation.

Senator Booker spoke of a cattle feeder who described to him the struggles in selling fed cattle to the one buyer willing to give him a bid. Booker said that feeder asked that no photos be taken and his name not be used for fear of retaliation from the packer buyer doing business with him.

Another witness, Doha Mekki, Berkley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, commented on the US Department of Justice case alleging the poultry processors had violated the Packers and Stockyards Act with their “tournament system” for poultry growers.

Booker commented that both Democrat and Republican administrations have “failed” to gain control over consolidation and monopolization from “farms to pharma.”

He also said that the alliance between big government and big business must be broken.

In his opening comments, Bullard explained that in just over a generation, over half the nation’s cattle ranchers and two-thirds of sheep producers have gone out of business. “Last year, over 73 percent of lamb and 22 percent of beef was imported, indicating that the U.S. is becoming reliant on imports,” he said.

“The cattle and sheep industries are in crisis because the packing industry has been given de-facto deregulation,” he said.

“In 1980, the four large packers controlled 36 percent of the fed cattle market. Today they control approximately 80 percent and have done so for nearly two decades. This is the industry that monetizes the entire cattle sector. This deregulation has created a bottleneck,” he said.

“A broken market has caused consumers to pay increasing beef process while cattle prices were falling. This is a phenomenon that cannot be explained by conventional market fundamentals, particularly when one considers that the only ingredient in beef is cattle,” he said.

“Nobody can look this chart [showing the disconnect between cattle prices and consumer beef prices] and say our industry is functioning fine,” he said.