Republican Senator Chuck Grassley says election year politics could be helpful in getting a bipartisan bill through the U.S. Senate. The bill calls for price disclosure in the cattle market, so people who aren’t selling cattle under a contract with one of the four big meatpackers can find out if the price they’re being offered is fair.
“When it comes to Midwestern people that don’t want a contract, they want a daily market, sometimes they can’t get a price,” Grassley says. “If they get a price, it’s only about 11% of the daily kill and they don’t know if it’s a fair price because the contract price isn’t in that daily average and this bill would put it in that daily average.”
Ten Democrats and a dozen Republicans are co-sponsoring the bill. Grassley met with Montana Senator Jon Tester and other key senators in his office last week to discuss a strategy for getting Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to bring the bill up for a vote.
“We’re counting on Tester, being a Democrat up for reelection…having more of a voice with Schumer than we Republicans would have to hopefully move that bill,” Grassley says.
The bill did clear the Senate Ag Committee last year, but it was never considered in the full Senate.