South Dakota’s Tim Johnson and Iowa’s Chuck Grassley have joined 11 other fellow Senators in writing the appropriations chair asking for exclusion of a House policy rider included in the ag appropriations bill that would strip GIPSA of its power. The provision would permanently bar the Ag Secretary from enforcing the Packers and Stockyards Act. R CALF CEO Bill Bullard says his group backs the Senators and wants that rider defeated.
Bullard says without GIPSA enforcement, the livestock concentration problem will continue growing effectively shutting out producers from any kind of competitive market in the future.
The Senate Agriculture Appropriations bill passed out of committee in May does not include that rider.