Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) along with his colleagues urged U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack to mirror the Cattle Contract Library Pilot Program included in the fiscal year 2022 Omnibus off of Johnson’s House-passed bill—the Cattle Contract Library Act. This bill overwhelmingly passed the U.S. House in December 2021.
“As you implement the recently passed appropriations bill, we write to urge you to prioritize the implementation of the cattle contract library pilot program based off the provisions included in our legislation, the Cattle Contract Library Act of 2021,” said the members. “By quickly implementing the provisions in our legislation, you can help provide certainty to producers across the country who put food on American’s tables.”
H.R. 5609 creates a library for cattle contracts within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agriculture Marketing Service Department. Currently, beef packers are not required to report the details of contract terms to USDA, which leaves cattlemen in the dark, inhibiting a transparent, fair, and competitive market.
Read the full letter here
