Mike Enzi: Keep the feds at the table on brucellosis

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) is leading an effort of western states struggling to manage brucellosis outbreaks to ensure that the U.S. Department of Agriculture holds up its end of the deal on a plan to create a new brucellosis management zone in the Greater Yellowstone Area.

A letter sent last week by Enzi and senators and representatives from Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, urged the Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) to acknowledge that the recent interim rule requiring states to develop an agreement and a management plan for both livestock and wildlife within six months also comes with a substantial cost. The senators and representatives urge APHIS to give states advance notice of the level of funding that will be provided in order to save states from shouldering the entire burden of the new rule. The letter also calls on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to move forward on the research and development of an improved vaccine for brucellosis which was authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill.

Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), Max Baucus, (D-MT), Mike Crapo, (R-ID), Jon Tester (MT), James Risch (R-ID), and Representatives Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Denny Rehberg, (R-MT) and Mike Simpson, (R-ID), joined Enzi in signing the letter.