Senate Votes to Ban Canadian Beef

The Senate voted Thursday to overturn the Bush administration’s decision to allow Canadian cattle into the country again nearly two years after they were banned because of mad cow disease.

The White House said President Bush would veto the measure if it reached his desk, warning that continuing to refuse Canadian beef would damage efforts to persuade other countries to buy U.S. beef.

The Senate’s 52-46 vote was to reject the Agriculture Department’s decision to begin resuming imports of Canadian cows under 30 months of age beginning next week. A similar measure has been introduced in the House, but leaders there have not scheduled a vote.

“They’ve got mad cow disease,” said Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). “Now the question is, should we run the risk of opening our border to livestock imports from Canada, when the evidence demonstrates clearly they’re not enforcing their regulations to reduce the risk to them and to us?”

Agriculture officials had planned to reopen the border to the beef on Monday. However, a federal judge on Wednesday granted a temporary injunction sought by Western ranchers seeking to keep the ban in place.

The Agriculture Department had planned to allow Canadian cattle younger than 30 months of age and an array of meat from younger animals. The infection level is believed to rise with age.

Mad cow disease is the common name for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE. People who eat meat tainted with BSE can contract a degenerative, fatal brain disorder called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.