Text: SCR00004 Text: SCR00006 Text: SCR00000 - SCR00099 Text: SCR Index Bills and Amendments: General Index Bill History: General Index
PAG LIN
1 1 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. ___
1 2 BY COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE
1 3 (SUCCESSOR TO SSB 1065)
1 4 A Concurrent Resolution requesting that the United
1 5 States Congress take all action required to preserve
1 6 free and private enterprise, prevent monopoly, and
1 7 protect consumers by immediately enacting
1 8 legislation to prohibit livestock packers from
1 9 owning, controlling, or feeding livestock to such an
1 10 extent that producers can no longer materially
1 11 participate in the management of their livestock
1 12 operations as provided in Senate Bill 27 introduced by
1 13 the Honorable Senator Charles E. Grassley and
1 14 cosponsored by the Honorable Senator Tom Harkin and others.
1 15 WHEREAS, the production and processing of livestock
1 16 represent a key component of this nation's food
1 17 security, welfare, and prosperity by providing an
1 18 abundant supply of value-added products upon which
1 19 this nation depends; and
1 20 WHEREAS, the State of Iowa is a leading livestock-
1 21 producing state in the nation, which has ranked among
1 22 the top third of states in red meat production and
1 23 which has for generations been the principal pork-
1 24 producing state in the nation; and
1 25 WHEREAS, the State of Iowa, like many neighboring
1 26 Midwestern states, has a long-standing public policy
1 27 of preserving farming, farmland, free enterprise, and
1 28 open access to markets for its independent livestock
1 29 producers; and
1 30 WHEREAS, the independence and vitality of livestock
2 1 producers in this state and in other agricultural
2 2 states are facing increasing anticompetitive forces in
2 3 the meat packing industry, which forces are
2 4 accelerating consolidation among companies and are
2 5 resulting in a growing prevalence by these
2 6 consolidated companies to integrate all aspects of
2 7 livestock production under their control from the farm
2 8 and ranch to the consumer's table; and
2 9 WHEREAS, these consolidated companies in the meat
2 10 packing industry have virtually unlimited means to
2 11 challenge long-standing legislative barriers designed
2 12 to preserve competition in agriculture for all
2 13 producers and consumers against the self-serving
2 14 practices of some of these companies; and
2 15 WHEREAS, this challenge to state statutes, if not
2 16 restrained by federal legislative action, threatens to
2 17 impair the independence and ingenuity of this nation's
2 18 family farmers and ranchers, to eliminate the
2 19 opportunity to exercise entrepreneurial and risk-
2 20 taking decisions that are at the core of what it means
2 21 to be a family farmer or family rancher, and to
2 22 endanger the viability of communities in which they
2 23 live; and
2 24 WHEREAS, the Honorable Senator Charles E. Grassley
2 25 and the Honorable Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa have
2 26 long and distinguished records defending independent
2 27 farmers and ranchers, the economies of local
2 28 communities, and the welfare of consumers by leading
2 29 congressional efforts to prohibit companies in the
2 30 meat packing industry from owning, controlling, or
3 1 feeding livestock to such an extent that livestock
3 2 producers no longer have an opportunity to materially
3 3 participate in the management of their operations; and
3 4 WHEREAS, during debate on the federal farm bill in
3 5 2002, the United States Senate approved amendments
3 6 sponsored by Senators Grassley and Harkin together
3 7 with the honorable Senator Tim Johnson from South
3 8 Dakota to ban the vertical integration of the meat
3 9 packing industry; and
3 10 WHEREAS, since the conference committee that
3 11 considered the federal farm bill eliminated the
3 12 protections offered by these amendments, consolidated
3 13 companies in the meat packing industry are now in a
3 14 position to use their captive supplies of livestock to
3 15 limit access to markets, to manipulate prices paid to
3 16 independent farmers and ranchers and charged to
3 17 consumers, and to devastate this nation's traditional
3 18 system of open and free markets; NOW THEREFORE,
3 19 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE, THE HOUSE OF
3 20 REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, That the United States
3 21 Congress is urged to immediately enact Senate Bill 27,
3 22 as introduced by Senator Grassley and cosponsored by
3 23 Senator Harkin and others, which amends the federal
3 24 Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921 to prohibit livestock
3 25 packers from owning, controlling, or feeding livestock
3 26 to such an extent that livestock producers no longer
3 27 have the opportunity to materially participate in the
3 28 management of their operations; and
3 29 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this
3 30 resolution be sent by the Secretary of the Senate to
4 1 the Honorable Senator Charles E. Grassley and the
4 2 Honorable Senator Tom Harkin, together with Iowa's
4 3 congressional delegation in the House of
4 4 Representatives; and
4 5 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this
4 6 resolution be sent to the President of the Senate of
4 7 the United States; the Speaker of the House of
4 8 Representatives of the United States; the Chair of the
4 9 United States Senate Committee on Agriculture,
4 10 Nutrition, and Forestry; and the Chair of the United
4 11 States House of Representatives Committee on
4 12 Agriculture; and
4 13 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this
4 14 resolution be sent to the President of the United
4 15 States; the Secretary of Agriculture, United States
4 16 Department of Agriculture; and the Administrator of
4 17 the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards
4 18 Administration, United States Department of
4 19 Agriculture.
4 20 SCR 5
4 21 da/cc/26
Text: SCR00004 Text: SCR00006 Text: SCR00000 - SCR00099 Text: SCR Index Bills and Amendments: General Index Bill History: General Index
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