PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Referred to the Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · May 3, 2022
Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2022
This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to take various actions to address transparency in contract terms and pricing in the cattle industry.
Among these requirements, USDA must maintain a publicly available library or catalog of contracts entered into between meat packers and livestock producers for the purchase of cattle, including any schedules of premiums or discounts associated with the contracts and other specific details. USDA must make this information available to producers and other interested parties in a monthly report.
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The bill further requires USDA to establish five to seven regions encompassing the entire continental United States that reasonably reflect similar fed cattle purchase practices for processing plants and establish mandatory minimums for each region (i.e., the minimum percentage of cattle purchases that are required to be made through approved pricing mechanisms from producers that are not packers).
Under the bill, approved pricing mechanisms are generally purchases of fed cattle made through a negotiated purchase, through a negotiated grid purchase, at a stockyard, or through trading systems or platforms where multiple buyers and sellers can regularly make and accept bids and offers.
The bill also establishes a maximum penalty for mandatory minimum violations by covered packers. Under the bill, a covered packer is a packer that has slaughtered an average of 5% or more of the number of fed cattle slaughtered nationally during the immediately preceding five calendar years.
People & committees
Rep. Axne, Cynthia [D-IA-3] · D–IA
Legislative record
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Referred to the Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture.
Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Jan 10, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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