Washington - A U.S. Senate proposal for mandatory reporting of the purchase price of slaughter cattle was whittled down by House-Senate negotiators to a study on the costs and benefits of the idea.
Negotiators rewrote the idea during work on a final version of the fiscal 1999 agriculture appropriations bill. They also called for studies on country- of-origin labeling of imported meat and produce, rather than requiring the labels immediately.
The substitute language, proposed by House negotiators and accepted by Senate counterparts, also told the Agriculture Department to encourage voluntary beef-price reporting.
"Make sure the market is open," said Senator Conrad Burns, Montana Republican, who supported the substitute.
Plains-state lawmakers said all sales should be reported because an increasing share of production was marketed through contracts or proprietary agreements. The result, they said, was less information for farmers when they had cattle to sell.
"This (study) is 'cover your tail' language," said Representative David Obey, Wisconsin Democrat. He said lawmakers were "caving in to processors and sticking it to the producers."
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