Press Release - IOWA SENATORS CALL FOR MUCH NEEDED IMPROVEMENTS IN LIVESTOCK MANDATORY PRICE REPORTING
WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a letter to Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory programs Bruce Knight, Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) today called on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reform the livestock mandatory price reporting program. Specifically, the senators asked that USDA address outstanding producer concerns and implement recommendations made in a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
The GAO report, commissioned by Harkin and Grassley, exposed serious flaws in how USDA is carrying out the reporting system which include problems in the accuracy of reports and transparency of the system.
"Producers still have concerns about how USDA is carrying out the LMR program and its important that USDA address them without delay." Harkin said. "I'm asking USDA to confirm within 30 days what it has done thus far, and will do, to address producer concerns and implement GAO's recommendations."
"Passing the mandatory price reporting extension was just one step in protecting producers. Now that it's been signed into law, it's time to move forward to ensure that the GAO recommendations are taken seriously at the Department of Agriculture and implemented as soon as possible," said Grassley.
GAO observed lengthy lag times by USDA in correcting problems when packers failed to report or provided incorrect information. GAO evaluated 844 audits and found that packers incorrectly reported or failed to report required information 64 percent of the time. On many of these audits it showed that USDA, on average, was taking roughly 85 days to ensure a packer made needed corrections to the information. In addition, when USDA audits reveal violations of the LMR Act, USDA has not been providing this information to the public, which undermines the overall transparency of the program.
The Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act requires packers, processors, and importers to provide critical price, contracting, supply and demand information to USDA, which uses the information to create price reports for livestock producers.
On September 20, legislation reauthorizing the LMR program to 2010 passed the Senate. President Bush signed the legislation into law today, October 5. Senators Harkin and Grassley have pledged to continue their push for additional legislative improvements in the LMR system next year.
Today's letter is a follow-up to Senators Harkin, Grassley and Chambliss' letter to Secretary Johanns on September 20.
http://grassley.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=5196&Month=10&Year=2006