One member of Congress alone has limited power in an emergency at the scale of the screwworm outbreak, and federal and state officials are mobilizing resources. And there are plenty of powerful members from West and South Texas who are engaged and able to ask questions directly to federal personnel.
But given the high-profile federal response and importance of the cattle industry to the district’s economy, the lack of a representative could hamper constituents’ ability to get information or be heard.
Absent a representative, both candidates to replace Gonzales are trying to convene ranchers, get information from the federal government and get information to people in the district — without the title of “Representative” next to their names that affords more information access.
When he was in office, Gonzales led the introduction of a House bill, cosponsored by the majority of the Texas delegation and included members of both parties, to establish a facility to grow sterile New World screwworm flies in areas at risk of infection — though the bill never received a vote.
Gonzales also launched a screwworm working group with federal personnel, state stakeholders and ranchers, and was on site when Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced a plan to eliminate New World screwworm last June.
USDA did break ground on a sterile fly facility in Edinburg in April, flanked by Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Republican U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, but the facility is not yet operational, though Rollins has pledged to fasttrack its opening.
Beef prices are already high due to herd mismanagement, beef will be insane in a few months.
good thing soylent green is cheap.
It’s more a matter of luck and human stupidity. The adult screw-worms typically travel only about 10 miles looking for an animal to infect . One major cause of spread is infected animals (mostly deer and other wildlife) that travel long distances before succumbing to the infection so it comes down to how far infected animals carry the larva.
Less than a year later we’ve detected a case about 50-70 miles into Texas. So from November 2024 to not quite the middle of 2026, about a year and a half, the parasite has spread from the southern Mexico border all the way into Texas.
Now, there is one other major way the parasite spreads. If someone unknowingly ships an infected animal to another part of the country, it could leap thousands of miles in a very short time. In fact, cattle smuggling from Central American countries is one of the ways that screwworms spread across Mexico so quickly. I really expect the same to happen in the USA if it hasn’t already.