The latest attempt by the Biden Administration to disrupt the meat and poultry industry with changes to the Packers and Stockyards Act’s (PSA) regulations does nothing to encourage competition and instead attempts to give new authorities to the U.S. Department of Agriculture to exert federal control over business contracts.
“The Biden Administration says these changes to the PSA’s regulations are about increasing competition, but they have nothing to do with competition,” said Julie Anna Potts, president and CEO of the Meat Institute. “These changes are simply an attempt to assert even more federal authority to regulate the equities of industry business practices, clogging the federal courts with every contract dispute. Congress never intended to give the agency such broad-ranging authority over meat industry contracts and practices, regardless of their effect on competition – and the courts have agreed.”