09/13/05 Mandatory price reporting about to expire

American Rancher September 13, 2005 Mandatory price reporting provides cattlemen with access to price information and market data and the current mandatory price reporting law is scheduled to expire September 30th. The law did expire a year ago but was later renewed for one year. Colin Woodall, manager of legislative affairs for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, says they would like mandatory price reporting extended for five years just as it is. Woodall says the House appears to be very supportive but some Senators only want the one-year extension. Woodall: "Our concern is that with one year it doesn't give us any more certainty than what we already have so we are pushing for a five year extension. Producers need to contact their members of congress especially their Senators, and let them know what this means to them, in that the re-authorization of this program is important. And to make sure it gets done before it expires September 30th. The data that is collected is extremely important in looking at our markets and if we have a gap in that data because we don't get this thing re-authorized in time, that's not information we can go back and recreate." Iowa Senators Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley are supporting just a one year extension because a GAO report will out late this year which may make recommendations on how to improve mandatory price reporting. I'm Bob Hoff.