Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is back with Vice President, Government and Industry and Affairs at the Livestock Marketing Association, Chelsea Good, talking about the Livestock Mandatory Reporting.
Livestock Mandatory Reporting was first passed into law by congress back in 1999. A final rule was put into place in December of 2000. Since that time, LMR has been reauthorized several times- most recently in 2015. The Livestock Mandatory reporting expired in September of 2020, but since that time it been put on the backburner by congress.
The most recent continued resolution in September approved it for another few months until December 16, when it is set to expire.
Good said, this is a program that needs to be reauthorized.
“I would love a full five-year reauthorization of Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting,” Good said. “That has become challenging, partly because there are so many other ideas out there in the livestock space, that some people see LMR as a potential vehicle to try and tack other ideas onto.”
When Good visited Washington, D.C., recently, she met with the majority and minority staff of both the ag house and senate. Those individuals, Good said, are committed to making sure LMR stays reauthorized.
“I think a full reauthorization, for a long period of time though, might be a way down the road,” Good said. “We are probably going to see appropriations, riders on that topic, at least in the short term.”
Turning the page to a majority of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, Good talked about what that means for animal agriculture.
“I think a big difference is the Democrats have had both the House, Senate, and the Whitehouse for the last few years,” Good said. “That changes with the Republicans getting the House. That leads to probably slower moving on policy topics. I think we are going to see some gridlock, honestly, in the next couple of years.”
Traditionally, Good said agriculture has been a bipartisan topic, and she has seen and heard commitments on both sides of the aisle in the Senate and the House to achieve a bipartisan farm bill.
“I remain hopeful that we will have some productivity in those areas where people can agree,” Good said.
While there is usually not a livestock title in the farm bill, Good said, there are items in the farm bill that impact the livestock industry.
“Our ask as LMA, as some of the things we are working on right now, like allowing markets to owner-invest in packers, or we are working on a prompt payment topic just because the mail service has gotten so slow that we want to incentivize more electronic payment,” Good said. “We want to see those move as stand-alone bills in the short term, even prior to the farm bill, but if they are not done by the time the farm bill rolls around, we will certainly have those as part of the farm bill conversation.
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