Treasury drops Small‑Biz Beneficial‑Ownership rule; MCOOL Amendment Passes as Farm Bill Fails

The Treasury Department is moving to eliminate beneficial ownership reporting requirements for most U.S. small businesses, including about 230,000 farms. The reporting requirements were created under the Corporate Transparency Act passed by Congress in 2021, that was meant to combat crimes such as money laundering.

R-CALF USA has been working to restore mandatory country of origin labeling in the beef industry, and even though the farm bill failed to pass out of the Senate, MCOOL is gaining traction as it was included in the legislation as an amendment, according to CEO Bill Bullard.

“The Meat Institute recently published a what we call an advocacy paper disguised as an economic study, and really all it was was that the the authors, on behalf of the Mead Institute, inputted data that was beneficial to the Packers, and that helped to inflate the potential cost of pool, and that had somewhat of a chilling effect on members of Congress.”

Out of the 24-member committee, the vote was 17 to six in favor of the MCOOL amendment.

"The Senate Ag Committee will have to come back, hopefully in September after the recess, and take it up and pass the full bill. But very importantly, the text of the Farm Bill now has mandatory country boards and labeling in it as an amendment, and that's a huge win for producers and consumers. So we're very pleased."