Senator Charles Grassley is pleased with the White House’s announcement Monday to allocate $1 billion in funding from the American Rescue Plan to independent meat and poultry producers as part of an effort to boost competition in the meat-processing industry and lower prices for consumers.

The Biden-Harris Administration states that the meat and poultry processor sector is one of many industries that have become dominated by a handful of large companies, as four large meat-packing companies control 85% of the beef market. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will be using the funds allocated from the Biden-Harris Administration in several programs to provide gap financing grants for independent processing plant projects, deploy funds to lenders to provide financing to businesses in underserved areas, support development of a well-trained workforce, safe workplaces, and quality, good-paying jobs; and reduce the financial burden of overtime and holiday inspection fees for small poultry, meat, and egg processing plants.

Senator Grassley shares what he believes are other important parts of the plan, “The enforcement of competition through the Packers and Stockyards Act and Secretary [Tom] Vilsack is through regulation beefing up that so that’ll be more competition. And then the fact that they’re having the Federal Trade Commission do more investigation of lack of competition.”

The Biden-Harris Administration is also encouraged to see bipartisan legislation in the Senate by Grassley and several other Senators and in the House by Iowa Representatives Cindy Axne and Randy Feenstra that seeks to improve price discovery in the cattle markets and facilitate actual negotiation of prices between livestock producers and packers. You can hear more from Grassley during a two-part Halcyon House Washington Page on air and at kciiradio.com.