Tester, Grassley blast USDA rollback on GIPSA rules

Havre Daily News staff

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester "vehemently disagrees" with USDA's decision to rollback protections that prevent consolidation in agriculture, a release from his office said.

In a bipartisan letter to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue signed by the Montana Democrat and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Tester slammed the agency's decision to withdraw two rules related to the Packers and Stockyards Act, commonly referred to as the "GIPSA rules."

"The industry has consolidated for decades into its current structure that enables a handful of companies to have extraordinary market power,"...