TL;DR: Congress members urge USDA to restore key agricultural reports to prevent market instability, emphasising their crucial role in supply and demand data provision.
Reinstatement of Key Agricultural Reports
Three senior members of the agriculture subcommittees in Congress have urgently requested the USDA to rethink its decision to discontinue certain agricultural reports for the year 2024. The reports in question include the July Cattle Inventory Report and the County Estimates for Crops and Livestock.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) declared these cancellations on April 9. Since the announcement, there has been a significant bipartisan pushback, emphasising the crucial role these reports play for producers nationwide, the legislators highlighted in a letter addressed to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Bipartisan Concerns
The appeal to reverse the decision is backed by prominent figures such as Andy Harris, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, and Sanford Bishop, Jr., a leading Democrat on the same panel, along with Senator John Hoeven from North Dakota.
In response to the growing concerns, NASS has scheduled a public webinar to elaborate on the remaining available data and discuss the discontinued reports. This webinar is open for public registration.
Impact and Importance
The legislators pressed on the vital importance of these reports, stating they are essential to staving off market volatility as they provide supply and demand data unavailable elsewhere. They strongly urged the USDA to leverage its authority to promptly restore these critical reports to avoid further market disruptions. The importance of swift action was underlined with the hope that data collection could resume immediately.
