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Beef checkoff debate fires up again

The long-running debate over how beef checkoff dollars are distributed and spent is heating up again.

Cattle organization R-CALF USA says two checkoff reform bills introduced in the U.S. Senate will help address its concerns with the close relationship between the national beef checkoff program and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). Among other things, the Senate bills would prevent checkoff programs from using vendors who lobby and would make all federal checkoff programs voluntary.

But NCBA CEO Kendall Frazier tells Brownfield concerns about his group and the beef checkoff are unfounded.

“It’s audited by third parties continuously to make sure the money is spent well,” Frazier says. “The Office of Inspector General did an audit a couple of years ago on it and gave it a clean bill of health. The Cattlemen’s Beef board audits it every year and we have our own independent auditors audit it. So it has multiple layers of scrutiny and accountability and we believe it’s working extremely well.”

AUDIO: Kendall Frazier