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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Senate Agriculture Committee approved bills Wednesday authorizing USDA to mandate minimum levels of cash trading in cattle and establish a special investigator’s office in USDA to probe allegations of unfair marketing practices.
Legislation that would bring sweeping reforms to the way cattle are bought and sold had its day on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, but the bill’s prospects going forward remain bogged down in the complicated politics of the beef industry and Capitol Hill.
Members of the Senate Agriculture Committee queried a long list of witnesses Tuesday to determine whether or not a pair of bills before the panel would advance competition concerns for the nation’s beef producers.
A bipartisan group of senators has rolled out an updated piece of legislation that they hope will solve price discovery issues for beef producers. But the new legislation includes language that has already elicited opposition from some of the nation's leading farm groups.
The price consumers paid for groceries jumped 1.4% in February, helping to drive an overall increase in the Consumer Price Index of 7.9% over the past 12 months, the largest in 40 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.
The two lead sponsors of legislation that would introduce new reforms to the cattle sector say they are undeterred by recent opposition to the bill’s key plank.
Members of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association voted Wednesday to specifically state their opposition to cash trade mandates, adding clarity to an explicit part of a bill being pushed by a bipartisan group of senators on Capitol Hill.
The American Farm Bureau Federation has released its new position on a piece of legislation to reform the cattle markets, saying it supports the majority of the legislation but cannot back its effort to mandate cash trade requirements in the beef industry.
The American Farm Bureau Federation may have to backtrack on its support for a livestock market reform bill after a pair of votes by delegates at its annual meeting Tuesday.
Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley accused his own party's staff on the Senate Ag Committee of working with meat processors to harm the prospects for a cattle market reform bill.