Source:  Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 8/9/10

The reauthorization of the Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting Act, which would extend and also expand the reach of the law, passed the full Senate late last week, just one day after being passed out of committee.

The bipartisan Senate version of the bill (S. 3656) is co-sponsored by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D.-Ark.), chairman of the Senate ag committee, and the committee’s ranking Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R.-Ga.).

The House ag committee passed its version of the bill (H.R. 5852) on July 28, the day after it was introduced. It still awaits a vote by the full House. The two versions are identical.

The Livestock Mandatory Price Reporting Act would to reauthorize the law for another five years. It also would amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to require the creation of an electronic price reporting program. It’s been in effect for the processors, packers and importers of many meat products for 10 years, requiring them to report certain sales and contract data, including prices, in order to make the market more transparent. The current bills expand it to include pork cuts and dairy products.

“The reauthorized price reporting law will bring even more transparency and certainty to the livestock markets,” said NPPC President Sam Carney, in a statement posted on the group’s Web site. “This is the way – Congress working with the industries rather than bureaucrats dictating to them through regulations – to bring about competition and fairness.”

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