Beef Buzz News
NCBA's Ethan Lane Voices Concerns with the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2022
Fri, 24 Jun 2022 08:57:33 CDT
Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, visits with the Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Ethan Lane. Lane talks to Hays about the NCBA's opposition to the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2022. Although there are several parts of the bill that the NCBA approves of, Lane said they do not welcome the idea of the Federal Government becoming involved with a cattle price mandate.
Despite the concerns of the NCBA and many other large ag groups, the Senate Agriculture Committee passed the bill favorably to the full senate.
"Our concerns with that bill continue to be the heavy-handed government mandate that is intended to direct how packers acquire cattle, but in reality, will be a mandate on how our producers market cattle," Lane said. "Government intervention in the marketplace telling producers how to run their businesses is not something the cattle producers are interested in."
The vast majority of producers, Lane said, have voiced their opinions about the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2022.
"We have overwhelming policy with north of 80 percent vote in our policy committee in opposition to these mandates, so we are going to continue to voice that up on Capitol Hill and try to educate lawmakers now that this is through the committee, and we will see where it goes from there."
American Farm Bureau also stands with NCBA on not wanting these mandates.
"American Farm Bureau and, I believe, 21 of their state farm bureaus sent a letter to the committee in opposition as well," Lane said. "We saw some of our state affiliates do the same thing."
Lane said there is quite a bit of concern throughout the country. The problem they are trying to address, he added, is something that has come and gone.
"We are talking about bills that are diagnosing a problem that is now two years old and the concern we are hearing from producers now is about input costs and fuel costs," Lane said.
During the Senate Agriculture Committee business meeting, Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas had to defend the southern plains. The northern senators located in the corn belt are upset and believe that AMA's (Alternative Marketing Agreements) are overwhelming the cash market.
The northern senators, Lane said, feel like everyone should do business the same way they are accustomed to. Every economist in the country disagrees with that, Lane added, and the vast majority of producers disagree with it as well.
"We were pleased to hear Senator Marshall articulate some of those concerns in the committee because they are real concerns and they have been largely ignored by many members of the Senate Ag Committee," Lane said. "We have heard some senators like Senator Grassley go as far as saying that he doesn't care that every economist in the country disagrees with him. He thinks they are all wrong."
The senators pushing this agenda forward, Lane said, have a "Washington knows best" mentality which is dangerous for cattle producers.
"We are hopeful that once it leaves the ag committee, it's the business of the full Senate, should they choose to take it up," Lane said. "There are a lot of cattle state senators that did not have a voice in that Senate Ag Committee conversation on both sides of the aisle that have substantial concerns with these bills."
Lane said he is confident that leadership on both sides of the aisle will be hearing from those senators in the coming days. There is a lot to be done before this has a chance of being seen on the Senate floor, he added.
"There is going to be a lot of work before the U.S. Senate between now and August recess," Lane said. "Then, when they get back from August recess, they are going to have to figure out how to keep the government funded and of course, we have got a little election coming up in November that might be impactful as well. I always remind people the most valuable commodity in Washington is Senate floor time and that is certainly the case at the moment."
Lane said he believes there will be many non-ag committee senators voicing some concerns about seeing this package move forward.
Click the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Ron Hays and Ethan Lane on NCBA's concerns with the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2022.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Beef News
