At Wednesday’s hearing of the House Agriculture Committee’s livestock subcommittee pork industry leaders expressed opposition to USDA re-proposing the GIPSA rule. While the House stripped funding for the measure, the Senate restored the dollars to allow implementation. NPPC President John Weber says depending on the final language, it could negatively impact pork producers.
He says there were problems with the 2010 GIPSA proposal and his group is worried those will resurface. He says they’re particularly concerned with part of the GIPSA rule related to the buying and selling of livestock.
Weber says NPPC Board member David Herring testified in front of the House Ag Subcommittee on Livestock noting analysis of the 2010 GIPSA rule by Informa Economics found it would have cost the industry more than $330 million annually.
More than 16,000 comments were filed by pork producers in opposition to the original GIPSA rule. Congress has included riders in the USDA annual funding bill several times to prevent the agency from finalizing the regulation. However, no rider was included in the USDA’s fiscal 2016 bill.
