{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sens-cruz-mullin-introduce-legislation-to-protect-ranchers-from-federal-government-overreach", "Sens. Cruz, Mullin Introduce Legislation to Protect Ranchers from Federal Government Overreach", "2023-12-05", "2023", "2023-12", "Republican", "Senate", "TX", "Ted Cruz", "C001098", "www.cruz.senate.gov", "cruz", "https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) joined Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) in introducing the Black Vulture Relief Act, which would alleviate burdensome government regulations allowing farmers to protect their newborn livestock from black vultures without a depredation permit whenever their livestock is threatened.\n\nUpon introducing the bill Sen. Cruz said, \u201cTexas has long been a stronghold in American agriculture. Our ranchers already face headwinds like drought, high input costs, and inflation.The last thing they need is to get a permit from the federal government to protect their own livestock. Livestock producers must possess the autonomy and authority to defend their livelihood from black vultures that are killing nearly 2.1 million cattle each year. The federal government has no place to stand in their way.\u201d\n\nCosponsors of the bill include Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).\n\nRead the full text of the bill here.\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\n\u2022 Black vultures are known to attack livestock, especially calves. These attacks are gruesome, often lasting hours, and cost ranchers an average of $2,000 per calf killed.\n\n\u2022 The black vulture population has increased by 468% since 1990.\n\n\u2022 Despite being listed as a species of lowest conservation concern, black vultures are still protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, making it illegal to take one without a depredation permit from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS).\n\n\u2022 FWS currently operates a pilot program that allows state entities to register for a master permit and disburse sub-permits to ranchers. However, these sub-permits limit ranchers to 3-5 black vulture takes per year, even though attacks normally involve 20+ black vultures at a time.\n\n\u2022 This bill maintains protections for the species by requiring annual reporting of takes to ensure FWS receives accurate data to monitor the population and prohibiting the use of poison as a method of take.\n\n\u2022 The legislation is endorsed by the National Cattlemen\u2019s Beef Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, U.S. Cattlemen\u2019s Association, Texas Farm Bureau, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife & Conservation, 19 state cattlemen\u2019s associations, and 5 additional state farm bureaus.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sens-cruz-mullin-introduce-legislation-to-protect-ranchers-from-federal-government-overreach"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7788739167153835, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}