To extend authorization for livestock mandatory reporting.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5290) to extend authorization for livestock mandatory reporting.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 5290. Our agriculture industry is the best, the greatest in the world. And at the centerpiece of it is our livestock industry. And that is why we are gathered here.

Livestock mandatory reporting is an important tool that provides the necessary transparency information to our livestock producers. This legislation extends livestock mandatory reporting until the end of September 2022, and it has bipartisan support with Democrats and Republicans working together on this very, very important bill.

In talking to our great livestock producers, I have heard time and again how important it is to extend this mandatory reporting program; and that if we let it lapse it will cause significant problems for our farmers and ranchers.

We are working together to make sure we get the job done the right way. All of our industry groups agree on this important bill, and that is the 1-year extension immediately of our livestock reporting.

Our Agriculture Committee held a hearing earlier this year that extensively covered the importance of livestock reporting, mandatory reporting. In that hearing, we also heard from a variety of very distinguished industry representatives that, first and foremost, we need to extend this program.

My committee's work on this issue--and while I am at it, I want to really give great thanks and gratitude to our agriculture staff. They have worked very diligently on this, and we are grateful for the hard work and dedication of the House Agriculture Committee staff.

So, as I said, my work on this issue is indicative of how important the livestock industry is to our fellow committee members, both Democrats and Republicans, and to our Nation and the vital importance, as the leading force, in our Nation's economy. That is where our great agriculture system is today.

I am aware of some ongoing discussions and pending legislation that seeks to reform the cattle industry, and we are going to deal with that. We are dealing with that over in the Senate Agriculture Committee and in our House committee.

However, we should not let negotiations of those reforms that we are working with stand in the way of extending this vital program for 1 year. In recent months, we have seen cattle markets begin to recover; prices for producers have moved up. This change in market dynamics is important to account for as we look to reach a consensus point on the framework of our reforms.

This 1-year extension will help to settle the concerns in the livestock markets and provide certainty to our livestock industry, while also giving our Agriculture members in both the House and the Senate more time to come up with a consensus of the proposed reforms to cattle markets.

We, in our House committee, are working with the Senate Agriculture Committee. I am personally working with Senator Grassley on the Senate committee so that we can have legislation going forward that has the vital input of both the House and the Senate, and we are giving it the time and

the interest that is needed, more time to have a consensus on the reforms that other Members of Congress have ideas on.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I will just close right briefly with a big thank you to my great staff, which is headed by the distinguished, smart, and dedicated Anne Simmons. I don't know what I would do without her. Of course, Ashley Smith, Prescott Martin, Daniel Feingold, Lesly McNitt, Kelcy Schaunaman, and also my chief of staff, Catherine Kuerbitz. We are a team, and I want to thank our staff.

Also, I want to thank our ranking member. We work together in a bipartisan way. This is an example of how we Democrats and Republicans have got to continue to do. We are here today setting this fine example of strong bipartisanship.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5290, to extend authority for the Department of Agriculture's Livestock Mandatory Reporting program.

Under the Livestock Mandatory Reporting program, or LMR, meatpackers across the country are required to report to the USDA the details of transactions involving the purchase of cattle, swine, and sheep, as well as transactions for the corresponding sales of certain beef, pork, and lamb products.

The USDA compiles and disseminates the information through hundreds of market reports each week, detailing price trends and supply and demand conditions. In turn, livestock industry participants, including farmers, ranchers, and feedlot operators, use the information to make informed marketing decisions.

The livestock markets have experienced significant price volatility leading up to and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, cattle markets in particular. As I am sure many of you have heard from constituents at home, this uncertainty has led to cries from the countryside for significant market reforms and investigations into packer purchasing behavior.

As industry and Congress continue to grapple with the best approach to improving market transparency while avoiding unintended consequences, and as we await the results of ongoing investigations, it is imperative that farmers and ranchers maintain access to the market information already provided by LMR.

H.R. 5290 would do just that, providing much-needed certainty for the year ahead.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for the purpose of closing.

Mr. Speaker, the Livestock Mandatory Reporting program is really a necessary and significant tool for the agriculture industry, especially based on the disruptions that we experienced most recently in 2020.

I think American citizens are consciously aware of the difficulties and the potential difficulties with the food and agriculture supply chains and the difficulties that they experienced as they went to the grocery stores as they sought to feed their families, specifically during 2020 and in the wake of COVID-19. The Livestock Mandatory Reporting program is a tool that can help avoid that type of an issue.

This reauthorization, as the chairman said, is important. It gives us time to have a great debate and to look at how we increase transparency within the livestock industry.

I urge my colleagues to support this extension, this reauthorization, to give us time to make the necessary fixes and refinements in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.