Jon Tester

Oregon's Ron Wyden and Montana's Jon Tester announced this week they are working with Republican Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Deb Fischer of Nebraska rolling out the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act. The compromise cattle market bill is part of the effort to "to return fairness to the cattle marketplace dominated by four major meatpackers" ...

Last week, the Senate voted 50-45 to approve the nomination of Tracy Stone-Manning as Director of the Bureau of Land Management. The Montana resident takes over a department that manages about 12 percent of the total landmass in the U.S ...

Last week, a bipartisan group of four Senators jointly announced the American Beef Labeling Act. The legislation would mandate the reinstatement of beef and beef products into the existing Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling Law (M-COOL), allowing for a 12-month development and implementation grace period. ...

A new effort from USDA to bring transparency to cattle pricing is getting a lukewarm response from the industry, and some criticism. R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard said the problem is that large amounts of cattle taken out of the cash market that don't contribute to price discovery ...

Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley joined fellow Republican Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, in introducing legislation on meatpacking. The bill, the Meat Packing Special Investigator Act, would address the "anti-competitive" practices in the meat and poultry industries that threaten the nation’s food supply and national security. The ...

Senator Jon Tester says the Farm Service Agency has further delayed disaster assistance support for farmers who were hit by quality losses in 2018 and 2019. Despite the recent rollout of the Quality Loss Assistance Program, the Montana Democrat says some producers were left out of the assistance package ...

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says the real answer to epidemic farmer suicides is not just social, but economic, getting demand and prices back up. Perdue recently opened up about the sensitive subject of increasing farmer suicides. He said one-on-one help to those under great stress is only part of the answer ...

As the USDA’s probe into price-fixing allegations in the beef industry continues, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue would like some extra tools to deal with potential price manipulation across the industry. Perdue spoke during a Senate Appropriations Agriculture-FDA Subcommittee hearing last week. He t ...

Montana’s Jon Tester has introduced a resolution in support of reestablishing Country of Origin Labeling.  The COOL resolution puts forth a firm statement of support for the program, which was repealed back in 2015.  The introduction follows months of coordination and collaboration by Senator Tester, who’s been pulling together consumer and producer stakeholders to push the labeling solution forwa

The American Farm Bureau Federation welcomes the Seeding Rural Resilience Act that seeks to address rural stress and mental health.  Senators Chuck Grassley and Jon Tester introduced the legislation last week.  R.J. Karney, AFBF Congressional Relations Director, said the bill expands on similar provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill.   “...