WASHINGTON— The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday passed its Fiscal Year 2025 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) funding bill, which included robust funding for the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division and restored a critical component of the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act (MFFMA) that had been rescinded in the Fiscal Year 2024 funding bill.
NFU is leading the fight to ensure the DOJ Antitrust Division has the resources it needs to promote fair and competitive markets in agriculture and across the American economy.
National Farmers Union (NFU) President Rob Larew expressed appreciation for the legislation: “We commend Chair Jeanne Shaheen and Ranking Member Jerry Moran for moving forward legislation that fully reinstates the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act and provides strong funding for the DOJ Antitrust Division. Corporate monopolies have been squeezing family farmers, ranchers, and our communities for decades, and we need a strong DOJ Antitrust Division that can fully enforce our nation’s competition laws. NFU looks forward to continuing to work with the Senate Appropriations Committee to empower the Antitrust Division to take on rampant monopoly power in agriculture and throughout our economy.”
The partisan FY25 House CJS Appropriations bill cuts funding for the DOJ Antitrust Division and fails to restore the MFFMA. In contrast, the bipartisan FY25 Senate CJS Appropriations bill did the opposite, strengthening funding for the division and restoring MFFMA to its originally intended purpose. NFU will continue advocating for Congress to adopt the Senate’s approach and fully fund the DOJ Antitrust Division and restore the MFFMA.
Background:
Earlier this year when Congress passed legislation to keep the government open, the funding bill included a damaging policy rider that would hamper the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division’s ability to enforce our nation’s antitrust laws and promote fair, open, and competitive markets. The rider unraveled a key component of the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act (MFFMA), legislation that Congress passed in 2022 with overwhelming bipartisan support.
Unfettered mergers and acquisitions in agriculture over the last several decades have squeezed American family farmers and ranchers. The MFFMA restructured premerger filing fees, raised fees for the largest mergers, and was intended to strengthen enforcement of our antitrust laws by providing additional funding to the DOJ Antitrust Division through increased access to the merger filing fees. The government funding bill in the spring of 2024 rescinded some of DOJ’s access to those filing fees, hampering DOJ’s antitrust efforts.
In recent years, the DOJ’s Antitrust Division had fewer employees than it did in 1979. Funding for federal antitrust agencies has failed to keep pace with overwhelming corporate consolidation in our economy, which harms family farmers, ranchers, and our communities. Under the Biden-Harris Administration and under the leadership of Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, the DOJ Antitrust Division is taking aggressive action to promote fair and competitive markets across many sectors of the American economy, including in agriculture. The MFFMA recission and inadequate funding would erode the important work happening at DOJ.
NFU’s Fairness for Farmers campaign has brought the devastating impact of monopolies on family agriculture into the national spotlight. Learn more at www.fairnessforfarmers.org.
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