WASHINGTON
, DC
– U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) today introduced legislation that will extend the Livestock Price Reporting Act by one year. The Livestock Price Reporting Act requires packers, processors, and importers to provide critical price, contracting, supply and demand information to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which uses the information to create price reports for livestock producers. The base price for many livestock contracts are established directly from reports resulting from the Livestock Price Reporting Act. The law is set to expire at the end of the month.
“Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting levels the playing field for farmers by giving them the information they need to make sound decisions in livestock markets,” Harkin said.
“We’ve heard from enough livestock producers to know that there can be improvement to this important law,” Grassley said. “Waiting until the Government Accountability Office report is completed so we can make appropriate adjustments to the legislation just makes sense.”
Last year, Harkin and Grassley requested a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into the accuracy of reported prices by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). There have been several concerns regarding administration of the program ranging from late filed reports by packers, whether negotiated purchases are being portrayed correctly in price reports, and inadequate oversight at USDA to ensure compliance and enforcement of the law. The bill introduced today by Harkin and Grassley would continue the program over the next year while allowing time to identify weaknesses in the existing law and incorporate recommendations once GAO has competed its report. The report is expected to be released in December. The House Agriculture Committee has already approved a bill that will extend the law for five-years. The House and Senate will need to work out differences to pass a final bill reauthorizing the Livestock Price Reporting Act.
“Iowa’s livestock producers have made it abundantly clear that there is no reason to move forward without substantive review and improvement to the current program,” Grassley said. “We should take the opportunity to improve this legislation and not push forward without the recommendations from the GAO.”
“It would be a mistake to provide a long-term extension of the law before GAO has had time to finish its work,” said Harkin. “If there are problems with the law, then Congress has a responsibility to producers to fix it, and to do so next year, as our bill envisions.”
Grassley and Harkin pushed for the creation of the law in 1999 to help improve competition and market transparency for livestock producers.