CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, April 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Competitive Markets Action, Inc. (CMA), a 501(c)(4) non-profit based in Washington, D.C., with the mission of promoting more regenerative and sustainable agriculture, and competitive markets in the U.S., and defending against attacks on states’ rights by the federal government, endorsed U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., for re-election in the First Congressional District Republican primary against Catherine Templeton. Earlier this year Mace was also endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump who deemed Mace a “strong conservative voice.”
“We are proud to endorse Nancy Mace and applaud her tireless work for American family farmers, and the great people of the First District,” said Marty Irby, president and CEO at Competitive Markets Action. “Mace has been a fierce and brave warrior who has displayed tremendous leadership and intestinal fortitude in championing the Opportunities for Fairness in Farming Act that would rein in the corruption within USDA’s scandal-ridden Commodity Checkoff Programs. American family farmers stand a fighting chance because of Nancy Mace.”
Earlier this year Competitive Markets Action and the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) presented their Competitive Markets Leadership Award to Mace during their Farm Bill Summit and fly-in on Capitol Hill.
Mace is the lead sponsor of the Opportunities for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act, H.R. 1249/S. 557, in the House where she’s worked in bipartisan fashion alongside Rep. Dina Titus, D-NV, and Sens. Mike Lee, R-UT, Rand Paul, R-KY, Cory Booker, D-NJ, and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, to reform the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s embattled checkoff programs that have been plagued by unethical and illegal activities for decades. This measure is backed by more than 200,000 farmers and ranchers across the country and groups like the FreedomWorks, the American Grassfed Association, Alabama Contract Poultry Growers Association, Contract Poultry Growers Association of the Virginias, National Taxpayers Union, the Heritage Foundation, as well as Reps. Thomas Massie, R-KY, Alex Mooney, R-WV, Victoria Spartz, R-IN, and Mike Lawler, R-NY.
OFF would reform the checkoff programs by bringing transparency and requiring the programs be audited for compliance; by prohibiting disparagement of one product over another and picking winners and losers in the marketplace; and by prohibiting checkoffs from contracting with lobbying entities like the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) who lobbied against Country-of-Origin-Labeling (COOL) and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) who has been outspoken against state ballot measures like California’s Prop 12 that benefit American producers who practice more regenerative and sustainable agriculture.
Mace’s campaign to reform the checkoff programs has also brought more light to controversy surrounding President Joe Biden’s USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, D-IA, who has directly benefited from millions of checkoff dollars funneled into his own personal coffers, and a salary of nearly $1 million per year from Dairy Management, Inc., following his eight years as President Barack Obama’s USDA Secretary, before being reappointed to the same post by Biden.
Rep. Mace also co-lead a House Republican sign-on letter alongside Reps. Andrew Garbarino, R-NY, David Valadao, R-CA, and Michael Waltz, R-FL, against the so-called Ending Agriculture Trade Suppression (EATS) Act, H.R. 4417, led by Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-IA, that is designed to nullify state ballot measures across the country enacted by a direct vote of the people. Industrial agribusiness interests failed to secure the enactment of similar legislation led by former Rep. Steve King, R-IA, in the 2018 Farm Bill thanks to the work of competitive markets leaders and former House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-TX, who is currently working with the Competitive Markets Groups on the issue in 2024. Mace also joined in signing a second letter against the EATS Act led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-FL earlier this year.
In the 117th Congress, Mace also co-led the Pigs in Gestation Stalls (PIGS) Act, H.R. 7004, that would have provided more space for breeding sows in pork production facilities across the U.S., a policy similar to many of the corporate pledges made by top retailers in the last several years who are working to eliminate the use of gestation crates in U.S. pork production.
Competitive Markets Action (CMA) is a 501(c)(4) non-profit based in Washington, D.C., that was formed with the mission of shaping policy to promote more regenerative and sustainable agriculture, and competitive markets in the U.S., and to defend against attacks on states’ rights by the federal government. CMA works to raise awareness of the harm caused by multinational conglomerates to the American family farmer, the consumer and our U.S. economy as a whole in an effort to bring about legislative and regulatory reforms.
- Rep. Nancy Mace Award Presentation
- Rep. Nancy Mace and CMA President Marty Irby