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A challenging path ahead for cattle market legislation

As both the US House and Senate return to work the path forward for legislation addressing the price imbalance in the cattle markets is uncertain.

Ethan Lane is with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.  “There’s a tremendous amount of support already for the cattle contract library,” he says.  “I think the vote in the House and the lack of objection to that legislation in the House sort of speaks volumes about where Congress is on that.”

However, he tells Brownfield, the Senate is a different story.  “You have a couple of these members of the Senate like Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Deb Fisher (R-NE) who have really made this a personal issue for them and they kind of want an all-or-nothing deal with the (compromise) legislation,” he says.  “And, you know, there are a lot of people around the country who aren’t necessarily interested in that full package, but do like a lot of its components.”

Lane says he wouldn’t be surprised to see the Senate Ag Committee hold additional hearings on the proposed pieces of legislation.