Bill Would Remove Regulatory Barrier to Financing of Processing Facilities

On Thursday, Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) introduced the Amplifying Processing of Livestock in the United States Act, or the A-PLUS Act.

The bill would allow livestock auction markets to hold an ownership interest in, finance, or participate in the management or operation of a packing facility that has a slaughter capacity of less than 2,000 animals per day or 700,000 animals per year.

Currently livestock auction yards are NOT allowed to finance or manage processing facilities – a regulation that dates back to terminal livestock markets in the 1900s when there was little separation between buying and selling agents.

USCA President Brooke Miller issued the following statement:

“The Packers & Stockyards Act is over one hundred years old – it’s time to modernize parts of this historic legislation that no longer make sense in the modern world.