WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) final rule removing bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) import restrictions on sheep, goats, and their products:

“This is another example of the Biden Administration putting America second, today’s move puts America’s sheep and goat producers in harm’s way. Removing bovine spongiform encephalopathy import restrictions opens our sheep producer’s flocks to extremely contagious and deadly diseases which we’ve invested significant taxpayer dollars into and all but eradicated over the past two decades. If these diseases are reintroduced in the U.S., producers will lose export markets which already took decades to recover,” said Senator Cramer.  

In February, Senator Cramer led a letter urging the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Robert Fairweather to withdraw the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) final rule on the importation of sheep, goats, and certain other ruminants until its impact on current market conditions has been fully evaluated. The letter notes the import restrictions function as a necessary protection against brain disorders such as scrapieor mad cow disease. Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), John Barraso (R-WY), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), John Thune (R-SD), John Hoeven (R-ND), and Mike Rounds (R-SD) joined Senator Cramer in signing the letter. 

“The federal government has invested over $200 million into scrapie eradication since the early 2000s. This investment has yielded tremendous results, lowering the percentage of scrapie positive cull sheep at slaughter by 99 percent since FY2003. By allowing scrapie positive animals and genetic materials into the United States, we risk reintroducing the very disease we have nearly eradicated,” the senators wrote