During a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) questioned Dudley Hoskins, nominee to be Under Secretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, about the international livestock market.
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00:00Thank you. Senator Hogan. I'd like to thank both of you for being here. Appreciate it very much.
00:08Starting with you, Mr. Hoskins, if confirmed, will you fully enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act?
00:16Thank you, Senator, and for the time you and your staff afforded me in your office before today's hearing.
00:22Yes, if confirmed, I would work with the AMS Fair Trade Practices Program and the career officials implementing the Packers and Stockyards Act to ensure it was implemented consistent with the law.
00:39The industry is always wanting more price discovery, more transparency, and more competition. What are your thoughts on accomplishing that?
00:48So I would note a couple of different things.
00:54One, your leadership and other members on this committee in facilitating the cattle contract library and other resources that AMS has adopted over the recent years to bring more transparency into some of the backroom, back operation side of that work stream from producers to feeders and packers.
01:18I would also just note Congress in the 1921 Packers and Stockyards Act stated very clearly the agency shall ensure fair competition and prevent anti-competitive practices in livestock, beef, and poultry.
01:37Since that time, there's been a lot of different rule makings in different administrations, a lot of litigation across different circuit courts.
01:46So what my personal interpretation of some of those terms of art, I think, is largely immaterial.
01:53If confirmed, it would be my role to implement the program consistent with the congressional intent and the way courts have informed and decided what those terms of art mean.
02:06I would also just note a close family friend and mentor who passed away about a year ago, cattleman in South Texas, who's a devout Catholic.
02:18He said God may have created the earth in less than a week, but he still hadn't figured out cattle markets.
02:26Well, your background in and expertise in this area shows, and you're right.
02:34What do you see in terms of expanding our ability overseas in terms of marketing our livestock?
02:41Thank you for that question, Senator.
02:45I think APHIS, on the veterinary side, when you're talking about sanitary non-tariff trade irritants, plays an absolutely essential role in prosecuting market access at a technical level.
02:59And regardless of me or whoever else would be in that role, I think as long as the subject matter experts are the ones driving those technical conversations and effectively being umpires, calling balls and strikes, and their political leadership stands behind the science, then I think we're all set up for success.
03:20If, if we step back from that mandate, I think we're all facing a lot of challenges.
03:25Right on, and we have to be firm and aggressive there.
03:29We can't allow fake phytosanitary barriers to prevent us from accessing markets and in the same, by the same token, we need to protect our market.
03:39Everybody wants to be in our market, and if there are, you know, various issues with some of those phytosanitary issues where, from South America or anywhere else where they're trying to put livestock in our market, we need to stand firm on both ways, right?
03:55Would you agree with that?
03:57Yes, Senator.
03:58I would.
03:59Yeah.
04:00Okay.
04:01Mr. Hutchins, I would like to get you to North Dakota to see Grand Farm and also our Policy Center at North Dakota State University.
04:12Are you willing to come do that?
04:14Yes, Senator.
04:15Very much so.
04:16I know the Secretary's already been there and the comments I read that she wrote was, she was very impressed.
04:22Well, it sounds like you're going to be an excellent undersecretary for research, education, and economics based on that answer.
04:30Thank you very much.
04:32Thank you, sir.
04:33At this point, we'll turn to Senator Fetterman.