President issues order to review regulations affecting ranchers

Executive Order 14425, signed on September 4, 2026, states that ranchers are essential to the nation's food supply and notes that the national herd is at a 75-year low while consumer demand for beef has grown almost 10 percent over the past decade. It directs the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior, the United States Trade Representative, the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, and the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to submit a report within 90 days that assesses all agency regulations, guidance and policies affecting ranchers and offers recommendations to promote financial viability and market access.

Within the same 90-day window, the Secretary of the Interior must determine whether the gray wolf and the Mexican wolf have met Endangered Species Act recovery criteria for delisting or downlisting, prepare a legislative recommendation to the President, and, together with the Secretary of Agriculture, engage states to revise protected-species lists and lethal-taking standards to aid ranchers in combating predation.

The order also instructs the Interior and Agriculture secretaries to consider amending producer-compensation regulations, evidentiary standards and program handbooks to ensure depredation claims are assessed consistently and expeditiously, and to revise criteria for authorizing lethal wolf removal to allow greater emergency responsiveness, including precision targeting.

The Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with the United States Trade Representative, must review all statutory and regulatory authorities that could permit mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef, provide an economic analysis of such labeling, and may issue or amend regulations or develop legislative recommendations within 90 days. The order cites mapping over 2 million additional acres of grazing land managed by the Department of the Interior and identifying nearly 1.6 million acres of vacant allotments managed by the United States Forest Service for potential federal grazing permits.

Section 5 directs each agency head, to the extent consistent with law, to take steps that ensure the order's measures and other Administration actions benefit American consumers through lower prices. Section 6 clarifies that the order does not create enforceable rights, is subject to the availability of appropriations, and that publication costs are borne by the Department of Agriculture.