Authority for mandatory reporting was set to expire on September 30, 2015. In September 2015, the Senate amended the House-passed bill, and Congress reauthorized LMR until September 30, 2020, in the enacted Agriculture Reauthorizations Act of 2015 ( P.L. Background

Before livestock mandatory price reporting was enacted by Congress in 1999, the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) collected livestock and meat price and related market information from meat packers on a voluntary basis under the authority of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. §1621 et seq.). Fewer animals were sold through negotiated (cash; or "spot") sales, and more frequently sold under alternative marketing arrangements (e.g., formula sales based on a negotiated price established in the future) with prices not publicly disclosed or reported. Some livestock producers, believing such arrangements made it difficult or impossible for them to determine "fair" market prices for livestock going to slaughter, called for mandatory price reporting for packers and others who process and market meat. Legislative and Rulemaking History

The Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 (LMR, P.L. 106-78 , Title IX; 7 U.S.C. The law mandated price reporting for live cattle, boxed beef, and live swine and allowed USDA to establish mandatory price reporting for lamb sales. USDA issued a final rule on December 1, 2000. On April 28, 2015, the Mandatory Price Reporting Act of 2015 ( H.R. 2051 , the Agriculture Reauthorizations Act of 2015, included provisions to reauthorize Mandatory Price Reporting, the U.S. 114-54 ) was signed into law on September 30, 2015. In addition, the act makes several changes to swine reporting, revises definitions in lamb reporting, and requires USDA to conduct a study on LMR ahead of the next reauthorization. The Senate-amended version included most of the House-passed provisions. However, the section of the House-passed bill that granted emergency authority to USDA to continue price reporting in the event of a government shutdown because of a lapse in appropriations, which was widely supported by the cattle, swine, and lamb industries, was not included in the enacted law. Lastly, the act requires that next-day reports include transaction prices that were concluded after the previous day's reporting deadlines. However, like past reauthorizations, livestock industry stakeholders suggested changes that were intended to improve mandatory reporting and to address issues that emerged since the last reauthorization. Although the House-passed version ( H.R.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) collected livestock and meat price and related market information from meat packers on a voluntary basis under the authority of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. §1621 et seq.). However, as the livestock industry became increasingly concentrated in the 1990s, fewer animals were sold through negotiated (cash; or "spot") purchases and more frequently sold under alternative marketing arrangements that were not publicly disclosed under voluntary reporting. Some livestock producers, believing such arrangements made it difficult or impossible for them to determine "fair" market prices for livestock going to slaughter, called for mandatory price reporting for packers and others who process and market meat.
In response, Congress passed the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 (P.L. 106-78, Title IX; LMR). The law mandated price reporting for live cattle, boxed beef, and live swine and allowed USDA to establish mandatory price reporting for lamb sales. USDA issued a final rule in December 2000 that went into effect in April 2001. The final rule included mandatory reporting for lamb. The law has been amended to include more detail on swine and to add wholesale pork. The act has been reauthorized three times, and the last reauthorization was set to expire September 30, 2015.
In September 2015, the Senate and House passed the Agriculture Reauthorizations Act of 2015 (H.R. 2051), a Senate-amended version of the House-passed Mandatory Price Reporting Act of 2015, which reauthorized mandatory price reporting until September 30, 2020. The act was signed into law (P.L. 114-54) on September 30, 2015. Reauthorization was widely supported by livestock industry stakeholders. As in past years, stakeholders proposed changes that were intended to improve mandatory reporting as issues emerged between reauthorizations.
In response to livestock stakeholders, the act makes several changes to swine reporting, creating a new negotiated formula purchase category and requiring that transactions reported after the day's reporting deadline be reported in the next-day price reports. It revises the definitions of lamb importers and packers by lowering the volume thresholds for determining if an importer or packer is subject to reporting requirements. Lastly, the act requires USDA to conduct a study on LMR ahead of the next reauthorization.
However, the act did not include a provision to grant emergency authority to USDA to continue price reporting in the event of a government shutdown because of a lapse in appropriations. This provision was widely supported by livestock industry stakeholders and had been included in the House-passed version of H.R. 2051.