Representative Dusty Johnson is optimistic the U.S. Senate will get a pair of bills he sponsors to the president's desk.
Johnson's bills passed through the House earlier this month.
A bipartisan group of Senators is taking up the Ocean Shipping Reform. That bill is meant to overhaul federal regulations on the global shipping industry. Johnson hopes the legislation will alleviate some supply chain issues.
The other, a Cattle Contract Library, makes public contract terms negotiated by packers. Johnson says that transparency should give smaller producers more leverage during price negotiations.
Johnson says senators from across cattle country want that bill.
"Senators sometimes have their own flavor of how they want to solve the problem," Johnson says. "So, it may be that each of those bills ends up in conference or a committee of the house and the senate, where we dicker over differences between their version and our version. Nothing happens quickly in D.C., but much of the work is done. I certainly think we're over the 50 yard line."
Congress is in recess until the beginning of the New Year.
