Grassley Expects Hearing on Cattle Market Reform Bill
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he is “confident” the Senate Agriculture Committee will conduct a hearing on the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2022 bill introduced last week.
In a Thursday appearance on AgriTalk, Grassley told host Chip Flory he expects Ag Committee chairwoman Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) will announce a hearing date, but, “I’m also confident that she doesn’t want to tell me what date because she said to me, ‘you will announce it before I do.’”
Grassley announced the bill last week along with Senators Deb Fisher (R-NE), Jon Tester, (D-MT) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
The revised bill would establish 5-7 regions in the U.S. where minimum levels of fed cattle purchases must be made through “approved pricing mechanisms.” Violations of the regulation would result in a maximum penalty of $90,000 for packers that have slaughtered 5% or more of the nation’s harvest over the past five years. The bill would also create a publicly available library of marketing contracts.
Grassley said he believes the bill is gaining support among his Senate colleagues.
“I just had a discussion with the two South Dakota senators on this very issue, just within the last 15 minutes,” Grassley said. “I think they're just about ready to come on board. We had Senator Rounds (R-SD), Tweet three or four different things that he wanted change, and we accommodated him. So, I expect him to get on board pretty soon, and I hope (John) Thune (R-SD) will, as well.”
Grassley said the revised bill introduced last week “didn’t change anything dramatically. It was more-or-less technical changes” to accommodate requests from USDA in order to enable enforcement if the bill becomes law.
Flory also asked about the possibility of mandatory country-of-origin labeling being reinstated by Congress.
“It's a possibility,” Grassley said. “As far as I'm concerned. I want people to know when they eat us beef, just like they ought to know when their T-shirt was made in Taiwan or the United States.”
For more information on the proposed bill:
Read the amended bill text.
Read updated one-pager on the bill.
Read an updated section-by-section summary of the bill.
