Hire More Heroes Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, I rise today to ask my colleagues to support my amendment to H.R. 22, which would allow for States to give ranchers the flexibility they need in transporting livestock by truck.

Today Florida is home to more than 1.7 million head of cattle. Of that, there are nearly 1 million head of beef cattle cared for by the 15,000 beef producers across the State.

Nationally, Florida comes in ninth place in overall cattle numbers. In fact, the top three ranking counties for cattle in my State are in my backyard, Okeechobee, Highlands, and Osceola Counties.

Florida is what is referred to in the cattle industry as a cow-calf operation State. This means cows are bred and calved in Florida, but the calves are then shipped out West for development and processing. Because of this, our cattle ranchers and beef producers rely on the shipping of cattle through the State and across the country in order to succeed.

Unlike most goods shipped by truck or rail, livestock needs special attention. That is why shipments are carefully organized to consider the needs and welfare of the animals being shipped. The livestock industry's goal is to move the cattle between locations safely and as fast as possible to minimize the stress on the animals.

Unfortunately, this is where Washington regulations get in the way. The current gross weight limit restriction for all trucks on Federal highways is 80,000 pounds, which limits how many cows can be hauled in one load. This restriction results in a partially empty livestock trailer, increasing the needs for more shipments, and ends up putting more trucks on the road.

The patchwork of State and national truck weight laws creates inefficiencies and forces livestock transporters to take indirect and longer routes.

For cow-calf operations that rely on shipping their hauls nationwide, these constraints reduce the efficiency of their operation and reduce the slim profits for our hardworking ranchers.

My amendment allows States to issue special permits for the transportation of livestock on trailers for up to 95,000 pounds. Focusing only on livestock shipping and allowing States to opt in to this program, my amendment would greatly benefit not only ranchers, but all American producers and consumers.

This amendment means fewer trucks on the road and lower costs for transporting livestock. I encourage my colleagues to support my amendment and take overly restrictive government red tape out of the equation of beef production.

My amendment is supported by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the oldest and largest national trade association supporting America's cattle producers.

I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment and make Washington work for America's cattle ranchers instead of the other way around.

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Mr. Chairman, I would just say in response that, yes, the amendment increases the cap of weight on these trucks; but if we look at it from the standpoint of each individual State, including my own, we have to think about things like trucks hiding on local roads, and some of those bridges you were talking about that are most vulnerable are on those local roads. We also allow for States to be able to charge a small yearly fee to livestock haulers so that they can more efficiently transport their loads.

So when we talk about actually reducing the number of trucks on the roads, getting them from outside of the shadows of these small, local county and municipal roads so that they are avoiding the interstates, plus the fee that we will be able to charge, I think that the overall result will be actual safer roadways.

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