Effort to overturn California animal welfare law is Republican overreach, Dems say

Republicans in Congress are trying to get rid of a California animal welfare law they explained is burdening other states It s part of what Democrats say is a pattern of Republicans trying to overreach while they have control of Congress and the White House Republicans also tried and ultimately failed to include a provision that would block states from regulating artificial intelligence in their reconciliation package We had a multitude of of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party freak out over the AI provisions in the House version of the big ugly bill which basically nullified states legislating on regulating AI Rep Jim McGovern informed NOTUS I mean this is the same thing Basically what Republicans are saying here is We don t care what states decide We don t care what voters decide in states We don t care what the regulations are We know best here in Washington California s Proposition is an animal welfare law passed in by ballot measure that was fully in effect as of Part of the law states pork sold in California must come from places that follow certain standards for their pigs such as not being confined in a cruel manner Those opposed to the law including multiple congressional Republicans pork industry advocates and the powerful American Farm Bureau Federation have argued the law places hard and expensive restrictions on pork producers across the country that disproportionally impacts small and midsize farmers Their other major concern is that by placing restrictions on all pork sold in the state Proposition is a regulation on interstate commerce that should be decided by Congress That was the primary basis of a legal argument the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation made in court in a federal development that made it all the way to the Supreme Court The court upheld Proposition in Although Congress may seek to exercise this power to regulate the interstate commerce of pork and numerous pork producers have urged Congress to do so Congress has yet to adopt any statute that might displace Proposition or laws regulating pork production in other States the court mentioned in its opinion The Department of Justice just now filed a new suit against the law focused on egg pricing Now advocates and chosen members of Congress are seeking to override the law based on the commerce aspect The Supreme Court is very clear here It s up to Congress to help define this episode We all agree interstate commerce is clear No one state should hold the other hostage Iowa GOP Rep Zach Nunn disclosed during a House Agriculture Committee hearing on Wednesday He and Rep Ashley Hinson have introduced provision that as Nunn put it during the hearing makes clear if you don t grow it you don t get to regulate it Rep Doug LaMalfa the sole California Republican on the committee demanded rhetorically Why do we push California s problems onto the rest of the country And why would we push L A and San Francisco thinking on the other states Republicans also pointed to patchwork regulations and the difficulty of complying and warned of the costs of following Prop getting passed onto California consumers Committee Chair Rep Glenn Thompson has made clear he wants to move on the issue He s trying to put language into a farm bill this year to regulate efforts he also made last year Senators also have introduced bill with similar regulatory goals Democrats also had other concerns about Congress overriding the law including that a large number of farmers had already updated their production to comply with Prop It would be unfair for the family farmers who updated their facilities to comply with new rules to keep or gain sector access to change the rules on them after they ve already made those investments ranking member Rep Angie Craig declared But the bigger argument from Democrats hinged on a D C -knows-best attitude from Republicans about a state law that voters approved Well it s the law of California California Democratic Rep Jim Costa communicated NOTUS He thinks congressional efforts to overturn his state s law are problematic Costa s broader concern however was that there are more significant things to focus on if supporting the agriculture industry is the goal I think tariffs that we re dealing with are far greater danger to American consumers to American producers agricultural producers than the impacts of Proposition Costa reported NOTUS I think that we ought to be focusing on the impacts of tariffs and mass deportation with our labor force Another California Democrat on the agriculture committee also voiced concerns about states rights I look at states rights That s really for me what supersedes everything Rep Salud Carbajal explained NOTUS Look I love pork I like bacon I love carnitas so I understand both sides of the arguments But I certainly at the end of the day had to defer to the rights and the will of my constituents and the state of California Republicans noticed the line of argument It seems like various of my Democrat colleagues have picked this issue to certainly care about states rights Republican Rep Mark Messmer stated during the hearing This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS a publication from the nonprofit nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute and NEWSWELL home of Times of San Diego Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia