Agricultural News
Mandatory Price Reporting Clears the Senate- Awaits House Action in September
Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:51:17 CDT
The Senate last night approved legislation to reauthorize the law requiring meat packers to report to the U.S. Department of Agriculture the prices they pay producers for animals.
Senators passed by voice vote S. 3656, sponsored by Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., to reauthorize for five years the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act, which is set to expire Sept. 30. The reauthorizing bill, which would extend the law to Sept. 30, 2015, also adds to the reporting law provisions requiring weekly reporting of pork exports by price and volume and of wholesale pork cuts.
The National Cattlemen's Beef Association applauds the efforts of the Senate Ag Committee Leadership to get this measure through their committee and now through the full Senate. Bruce Hafenfeld of California is the Chairman of the NCBA's Policy Division and says "As a producer of food and fiber for a growing global population, I appreciate Senator Lincoln's efforts to help continue the availability of timely and accurate information for U.S. cattle producers. By reauthorizing the Mandatory Price Reporting, cattle producers will continue to have access to daily price and volume information on purchases of cattle and boxed beef sales as well as export and import data. This effort to enhance transparency in the marketplace is a definite win for every aspect of the industry."
The nation's pork producers are also pleased. "The National Pork Producers Council is grateful that the Senate has approved extension of this important law on mandatory price reporting," said NPPC President Sam Carney, a pork producer from Adair, Iowa. "We implore the House to act swiftly on its bill reauthorizing the price reporting law, which will help producers make business and production decisions."
Companion House legislation, sponsored by Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn., was approved by that panel July 28. The full House is expected to take up the measure, H.R. 5852, after lawmakers return from a month-long recess. "The reauthorized price reporting law will bring even more transparency and certainty to the livestock markets," Carney said. "This is the way Congress working with the industries rather than bureaucrats dictating to them through regulations to bring about competition and fairness."
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