The U.S. Congress created the Beef Promotion and Research Act, the Beef Checkoff Program, with passage of the 1985 Farm Bill. Producers approved making the Beef Checkoff Program mandatory in 1988, with 79 percent voting in favor of it. Producers asked the checkoff program be built on these tenets:

• All producers and importers pay the equivalent of $1/head each and every time a beef animal is sold throughout its lifetime.
• One-half of the money collected by state beef councils – 50 cents of every dollar – is invested through the beef council in each state.
• All national checkoff-funded programs are budgeted and evaluated by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, a stand-alone organization of checkoff-paying producer volunteers.
• Cattlemen’s Beef Board producer members are nominated by producer organizations in their states and appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.