LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Nevada Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen are pushing in opposition to the Trump administration’s plan to import beef from Argentina, as Nevada cattlemen additionally oppose the plan.
As the worth of a pound of floor beef rises, the White Home plans to import extra Argentinian beef to decrease costs for shoppers. The common worth on Tuesday was a file $6.32, based on the Related Press. Beef costs rose dramatically, together with different groceries, amid provide chain shortages from the COVID pandemic.
Amid the excessive costs, beef imports are decrease due to tariffs the president imposed on Brazil and limits to Mexican markets, the AP reported. The deliberate imports come because the administration licensed a $20 billion bailout to the South American nation amid an financial disaster.
Nevada was house to greater than 1,100 cattle ranches as of 2022, largely within the northern a part of the state, based on the Nevada Division of Agriculture. The ranches add greater than $300 million to the state’s economic system.
Beef cattle stand in pens on the livestock market in Canuelas, Argentina’s most important cattle buying and selling hub, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (AP Picture/Rodrigo Abd)
On Thursday, Cortez Masto introduced she was becoming a member of a proposal to cease the U.S. Treasury Division from releasing the bailout cash to Argentina. In a information launch, the senator’s workplace mentioned the quantity had doubled to $40 billion.
“While families in Nevada are struggling to afford everything from a cup of coffee to housing, President Trump is sending taxpayer dollars to bail out his friends in Argentina,” Cortez Masto mentioned in a press release. “It’s time to stop this nonsense plan to send $40 billion to Javier Milei’s regime and focus on commonsense, bipartisan solutions to actually help struggling Americans.”
In a submit on “X,” the senator posted a clip of Trump speaking concerning the deliberate beef imports, writing: “Donald Trump (R-Argentina) is putting Americans last.”
In a name with reporters Thursday, Rosen mentioned she too would be a part of the invoice to dam the bailout and work to forestall the imports.
“How dare he let in somebody else’s beef that’s going to hurt our cattle ranchers,” Rosen mentioned. “I’m not going to stand for it. I’m not going to see those families losing everything — their own family legacy.”
On Fb on Wednesday, the Nevada Cattlemen’s Affiliation shared a submit from the Nationwide Cattlemen’s Beef Affiliation, which decried the president’s plan. The submit included a screenshot of a Reality Social submit from Trump the place the president mentioned “it would be nice” if the cattle ranchers understood his tariff coverage.
The Nationwide Cattlemen’s Beef Affiliation posted this assertion:
The fact is that ranchers’ success is pushed by their very own exhausting work. America’s cattlemen and girls function in one of the crucial aggressive marketplaces on the earth. U.S. cattle producers are proud to supply the most secure, highest-quality beef on earth. We merely ask that the federal government not undercut them by importing extra Argentinian beef with a view to manipulate costs.
Cattlemen and girls can’t stand behind President Trump whereas he undercuts the way forward for household farmers and ranchers by importing Argentinian beef. It’s crucial that President Trump and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins let cattle markets work with out interference.
If the administration is actually an ally of America’s cattle producers, we name on him to desert this effort to control markets and focus as a substitute on finishing the promised New World Screwworm facility in Texas; make further investments that defend the home cattle herd from international animal ailments comparable to FMD; and handle regulatory burdens, comparable to delisting of the grey wolf and addressing the scourge of black vultures.
Nationwide Cattlemen’s Beef Affiliation
The Nevada group didn’t reply to a request for remark aside from the shared submit.
