USDA this week is finalizing its third Packers and Stockyards Act rule, just days before the Trump administration is set to take office on January 20.
“The Biden administration, with just six days remaining, is racing to impose the last pieces of its anti-business regulatory agenda,” NCC President Harrison Kircher said. “This rule – which Congress never asked for – will lead to rigid, one-size-fits-all requirements on chicken growing contracts that would stifle innovation, lead to higher costs for consumers, decrease competition, and cost jobs by driving some of the best farmers out of the chicken business.
“The vast majority of chicken farmers in rural America are happy and prosper raising chickens in partnership with companies, and they don’t want the government meddling on their farms and telling them how they should run their businesses.”
NCC comments filed on the proposed rule can be found here. The Poultry Grower Payment Systems and Capital Improvement Systems rule can be found here.
Among the issues detailed in the comments, NCC was especially concerned about the following issues with the Proposed Rule:
- The Proposed Rule exceeds Congress’s grant of authority in the PSA by prohibiting conduct without requiring a showing of injury to competition or even unfair or deceptive practices;
- The Proposed Rule mischaracterizes dynamics and efficiencies in the current poultry growing industry, rendering it arbitrary and capricious;
- As written, the Proposed Rule is too vague to be considered constitutionally valid;
- The current Proposed Rule is so prescriptive as to unduly impinge on grower and integrator freedom to contract; and
- AMS has greatly underestimated costs associated with the rule and would require an extended implementation period of at least two years.
USDA announced that the rule will take effect on July 1, 2026. As is typical in a change of administration, the incoming Trump administration is expected to issue a memorandum that delays the implementation of any recently finalized rules for the new administration to determine its desired path forward.
In addition to finalizing the rule, USDA announced it intends to withdraw its fourth Packers and Stockyards Act rule, known as the “Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets” proposed rule. USDA first proposed this rule in June 2024. NCC filed comments on the rule, which can be found here.
