At an event held at the Public Auction Yards in Billings, Montana on Friday, June 11, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., announced new legislation that would amend the Packers and Stockyards Act to establish the Office of the Special Investigator for Competition Matters.
Tester joined Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., to introduce the bill to address anticompetitive practices in the meat and poultry industries which they say threaten the nation’s food supply and national security following the recent ransomware attack on JBS, the country’s largest meat supplier.
“This bill comes at a critical time for the U.S. cattle industry. To ensure a level playing field for U.S. cattle producers, we need a referee that can call foul on anticompetitive market practices,” says U.S. Cattlemen’s Association Director Emeritus Leo McDonnell of Columbus, Mont.
The senators’ bill, the Meat Packing Special Investigator Act, would create the “Office of the Special Investigator for Competition Matters” within USDA’s Packers and Stockyards Division.
The new USDA special investigator will have a team of investigators, with subpoena power, dedicated to preventing and addressing anticompetitive practices in the meat and poultry industries and enforcing our nation’s antitrust laws. They will coordinate and act in consultation with the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission and create a new bridge between the USDA and the Department of Homeland Security to protect the continuation of the food supply and increase our national security. With a team of dedicated staff, the USDA will now have the ability to investigate the tough issues facing producers and hold bad actors accountable, the senators explain.