Stabenow: We Continue To Work To Address Cattle Price Issues

Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow is non-committal so far on cattle market reforms proposed by other senators trying to boost competition and prices to independent producers. A fire at Tyson’s Holcomb, KS facility in 2019, followed by the pandemic have together sparked outrage by many over the big price spread between fed cattle and boxed beef, but Stabenow is making no promises on reforms.

“I’m working with Senator Grassley and Senator Fisher in a bipartisan group, both on the committee and off the committee. And so, I expect at some point we’ll be doing a hearing, because that’s a really important issue, and we’ll see, we’ll see whether or not we have agreement.”

Iowa’s Chuck Grassley suggested earlier, a House-passed one-year extension of Livestock Mandatory Reporting could be the vehicle for market reforms, but Stabenow quickly corrected that.

“It’s the omnibus bill in February, the year’s budget, that I think he’s talking about. There is a short-term extension in the CR that we passed, already, we haven’t decided what happens after February—so that’s the question.”

That is a question Stabenow won’t answer at this time, nor will her House counterpart, Chairman David Scott, also open to negotiations, but making no commitments amid industry and lawmaker differences on reforms.

Stabenow has committed though to hold a hearing in January, but no date’s been set.

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