Industry Update: NCBA, PLC Provide Update from Capitol Hill during WSGA summer meeting
The third day of the 2025 Wyoming Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show, hosted by the Wyoming Stock Growers Association (WSGA) in Laramie June 2-4, kicked off with updates from ag agencies and organizations based in the state of Wyoming and beyond.
Representatives from the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) and Public Lands Council (PLC) were among the lineup to provide attendees updates from Capitol Hill.
NCBA update
NCBA Policy Division Chair Skye Krebs was first to take the stage, noting NCBA has been hard at work with the new administration, scoring victories on everything from pulling back the Bureau of Land Management’s Conservation and Landscape Health rule and getting a big win for the Maude family in their South Dakota federal land dispute.
At the forefront of many people’s minds is President Donald J. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which Krebs praised for raising tax exemptions.
“It’s indexed for inflation and supposedly permanent, which would be great,” he stated.
Since it is unlikely a new farm bill will be rolled out anytime soon, he further noted NCBA has made it a priority to ensure this reconciliation bill includes reimbursements for predation caused by federally-protected predators, expands the livestock forage disaster program to deal with wildfire and drought and includes the three-pronged approach to dealing with foot and mouth disease – a vaccine bank, the National Animal Health Laboratory Network and the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program.
Another hot topic debated in the industry is the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and Krebs mentioned two important bills producers should be paying attention to – the Pet and Livestock Protection Act, which would delist the gray wolf nationwide, and the ESA Amendment Act proposed by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR), which would impact assessments used when making listing decisions.
In regards to labor, Krebs said, “There was an interesting program that didn’t get a lot of press. It’s called the Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan Labor Program, and it was a legal guest worker program for people from these countries seeking asylum. It just so happened a lot of them went to work in the packinghouses on the swing shift and cleanup crew, so when Trump came in swinging his big stick, he axed the program.”
“But, there wasn’t a trained workforce on the swing shift or the cleanup crew at the plants so it turned into a health and safety issue, and a federal judge stopped it,” he added. “They are going to let this program expire on its own time so they can have workers trained to come in and take over those jobs.”
Krebs mentioned the H2A Visa Program is also a priority for NCBA when it comes to labor.
Lastly, Krebs noted the new administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, which caused an uproar among farm groups.
“MAHA came out in May, and it targeted things like ultra-processed foods, poor diets, pesticides, over medication, stress and other factors that are part of American’s chronic health problems,” he said. “Farm groups were obviously concerned about the pesticides, but on the beef side of things, we weren’t nearly as impacted by this report.”
In fact, he noted beef was actually portrayed in a positive light in the report, which outlined science-backed evidence beef supports muscle growth and is an essential part of a healthy diet.
Krebs said NCBA sees this as welcome news after the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee’s attempt to nix red meat from Americans’ diets and replace it with beans, peas and lentils.
To conclude, Krebs shared his belief NCBA is in a very strong position to continue working with the Trump administration.
“We are going to continue working with them, and we welcome engagement from anyone or any group who wants to work on these issues and help fulfill our goals,” he concluded.
PLC update
PLC Director Garrett Edmonds noted positive changes in the administration as well.
“A year ago, we had a divided Congress and an administration that wasn’t receptive to our interests and our industry,” he began. “We are willing to work with anyone and everyone, but part of it has to come with receptiveness on both sides.”
Today, Edmonds said there is a slim Republican majority in the House and the Senate, as well as an administration who has proved their willingness to listen and work with PLC.
“They have been very effective getting nominees out, and we have Senate leadership that has been effective at getting them confirmed,” he continued. “We are thrilled to see former Wyoming Game and Fish Director Brian Nesvik appointed to serve as our next U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS) director, and we are continuing to urge Senate leadership to move his nomination forward.”
The issue of the ESA also came up in Edmonds’ talk, and he discussed the past administration’s revisions to the grizzly bear’s distinct population segment (DPS) and 4(d) rule for management flexibility and the proposal to list the Monarch butterfly, which Edmonds said is a first-of-its-kind listing with no direction on how to navigate herbicide and pesticide use.
“When we talk about the grizzly DPS proposal, I think it is an absurd proposal, to say the least,” he stated. “I had a conversation with FWS and they view this as a way to move towards a quicker direction of delisting, but I don’t see how they can make that argument. So, we are pushing back against this pretty hard, and I think our next FWS director being from this state will have key interest in fleshing this out and talking about it a little more.”
Additionally, Edmonds noted PLC has partnered with the National Endangered Species Act Reform Coalition to provide comment in support of revising the definitions of “harm” and “harass” in the ESA.
He also mentioned, like NCBA, PLC is working to build support for the Pet and Livestock Protection Act and the ESA Amendment Act.
Wildfire and grazing are also top of mind for the agency, and while Edmonds noted the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was certainly devastating, he believes they shine a much-needed light on the important of proactive management on the landscape, which includes timber harvest and targeted grazing.
PLC Secretary Robbie LeValley joined Edmonds in providing comment for PLC and brought research done at the University of Idaho to attendees’ attention.
She explained the 10-year project looked at the impacts of grazing on Greater sage grouse populations, and contrary to what many believe, the study found significantly higher nest success and insect populations for young birds to feed on in a landscape managed with grazing.
“This is huge because this was done across several different allotments, three different states and over 374 different plots,” she said. “The research is starting to catch up with what we’ve all known for years.”
Hannah Bugas is the managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
