Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act of 2022

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ROUZER. Mr. Speaker, listening to the debate this morning reminds me of something President Ronald Reagan once said. He said: Our friends on the other side of the aisle, they know so much that just isn't so.

How interesting it is that the title of this package is the exact opposite of what this legislation is going to do. It will do nothing to bring down the cost of food and energy. Instead, it is making excuses for the crises caused by the Biden administration's attacks on American agriculture and energy.

Now, there are a few good pieces of bipartisan legislation in this package, but our friends on the other side of the aisle refuse to allow these bills to receive their individual votes. Instead, they are using the good provisions here as pawns in their political messaging.

One of the really harmful bills in this package, as has been discussed, the Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act, creates a duplicative office within the USDA that will only add to the regulatory burden of our food processors across the country, and that is going to increase costs.

The investigator would be granted independent litigation authority, allowing for civil suits against packers at the whim of the Secretary without even consulting with the DOJ. It should be noted, the DOJ already launched an investigation into the ``Big Four'' for anticompetitive practices in May of 2020 and has declined to provide Congress with an update even 2 years into that investigation.

The bottom line is increasing regulation will raise food prices, not make them more affordable. Our farm families need inputs at a fair price. They need diesel prices to come down. They need to be able to produce the food to feed this country and the world without the government making it harder and harder day in and day out. That is why this package must be defeated.

Rather than more regulation, we must unleash the full ability of American production. We must work for our farm families and do what is right and defeat this bill.

Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Spanberger), who is also the chair of our Conservation and Forestry Subcommittee.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source