In less than half an hour, the House passed on voice votes bills to reauthorize the Grain Standards Act and the mandatory livestock price reporting program, each with significant modifications to prevent disruption of service. The bills now go to the Senate.
The Grain Standards bill would require the USDA to step in immediately if there is an interruption of inspection of grain at export terminals, either by dispatching federal inspectors or inspectors from state agencies empowered to conduct the work. The House Agriculture Committee wrote the provision because of a 36-day lapse at Vancouver, Washington, during a labor dispute in 2014. In that instance, the Washington State Agriculture Department, authorized by the USDA to carry out inspections, withdrew its inspectors, saying it could not assure their safety. The USDA said it could not send federal inspectors for the same reason.
A similar provision is part of a Grain Standards bill approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee on May 21. The United States is the world’s largest agricultural exporter, and farm and agribusiness groups called for action to prevent interruption in inspections. Nearly 4.5 billion bushels of U.S. corn, wheat and soybeans will be exported this marketing year, according to the USDA – equal to four of every 10 acres of wheat and soybeans and more than one of every 10 acres of corn.
The price-reporting bill would elevate the USDA’s gathering and dissemination of livestock sale prices to an essential government service. The reports of “spot” prices at stockyards around the country often are used in calculating the price for cattle and hogs produced under contract for a packer. The USDA stopped providing the information during the federal shutdown in fall 2013. “If we find ourselves in that situation again, price reporting will go on,” said Rep. Tim Walz, a Minnesota Democrat.
“We’re ahead of the curve,” said House Agriculture Committee chairman Michael Conaway, because the House acted well in advance of the Sept. 30 expiration of the underlying Grain Standards and price-reporting laws.