Liz Saville Roberts: “Mr. President I have joined with my colleague from North Dakota, Senator Conrad, and 19 other Senators to introduce a…”

“Mr. President I have joined with my colleague from North Dakota, Senator Conrad, and 19 other Senators to introduce a bill to restore normal beef trade with Japan. Prior to the discovery of BSE or mad cow disease in the United States in December 2003, Japan was the largest export market for American beef in the world. But since that fateful day 2 years ago, U.S. beef producers have been locked out of the Japanese market. To say the loss of this market has been detrimental to the viability of the American beef industry is an understatement. This is an issue that effects every part of the U.S. beef industry from the cowboys in western Kansas to the folks standing in line at the grocery store shopping for hamburger patties in New York City. And perhaps this is felt no where as strongly than in places like Dodge City, KS Dodge City is a town that has built it's economy on the beef industry since the days of the wild west. It is a place where the number of cattle far outnumbers the number of people that live within the county lines. And it is the place that I call home. The beef industry is a major economic driver for Dodge, but it's one of the largest industries in Kansas--representing over $5 billion in annual revenue. We are a state with 6.65 million head of cattle, compared to a human population of 2.6 million. In 2003, cattle represented 62 percent of the Kansas cultural cash receipts and the processing industry alone employs over 18,700 Kansans.…”