Del.icio.us  Digg  facebook  MySpace  Twitter  Google  Bookmark Me  LinkedIn  StumbleUpon  Permalink

Senate Gives Nod to Final Price Reporting Passage

The National Pork Producers Council today applauded the U.S. Senate for passage of a bill to reauthorize mandatory price reporting. The Senate bill is identical to a bill passed by the House a year ago just before the law expired. Senators approved the new five-year reauthorization of the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999, with some changes requested by the livestock groups, by unanimous consent.

"Pork producers are extremely grateful to the Senate for taking action on this important legislation," says NPPC President Joy Philippi, a pork producer from Bruning, Neb. "The mandatory price reporting law is an important tool that helps producers make business and production decisions."

NPPC reported this morning that both chambers now have approved "three enhancements to the pork reporting provisions," including:

• Adding more sows to the pricing reports to more accurately reflect the sales and prices paid in the sow market.

• Changing the timing for data reporting to help USDA with its workload and, thus, increase report accuracy and efficiency.

• Allowing USDA to publish price distributions for net prices to provide more useful information than is currently provided by the price ranges specified in the law while maintaining the current confidentiality requirements.