10/02/06 Mandatory price reporting is back

American Rancher October 2, 2006 Renewal of mandatory livestock price reporting, which had been held up in the U.S. Senate, was finally passed by the upper chamber recently and national cattle organizations are gratified to have it back. The law requires packers to report daily price and volume information on both negotiated and non-negotiated purchases of cattle and boxed beef. Mandatory price reporting was first enacted in 2001 but Terry Stokes of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association says it had to be reauthorized every year. Stokes says this time the law was reauthorized for four years. Stokes: "It means we have got an effective law back on the books and we don't have to spend resources to defend each and every year." Senators Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley of Iowa had wanted to incorporate changes recommended in a GAO study into the reauthorization and so did R-CALF USA. But Bill Bullard of R-CALF says they all agreed to get the lapsed law back on the books. Bullard: "And what they have done now they have achieved a formal agreement with the Senate to continue addressing the GAO concerns as soon as the next Congress convenes after January." Bullard says R-CALF will work with Senators Harkin and Grassley, as well as the Senate Ag Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss to make certain USDA begins to implement the GAO recommendations. I'm Bob Hoff.