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Blackburn, King, Paul Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Reduce Red Tape for Farmers and Cut Meat Costs

August 14, 2025

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) joined Senators Angus King (I-Maine), and Rand Paul (R-Ky.)  in introducing bipartisan legislation to make it easier for small farms and ranches to provide locally produced meats to consumers. The Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption (PRIME) Act would give individual states the freedom to permit intrastate distribution of custom-slaughtered meat such as beef, pork, goat or lamb to consumers, restaurants, hotels, boarding houses and grocery stores. 

“Beef is the second-highest grossing farm commodity for Tennessee, and our local farmers and ranchers shouldn’t be held back by federal government red tape from selling their safe and fresh meat in the community,” said Senator Blackburn. “By passing the PRIME Act, we can get rid of unnecessary barriers for locally grown meat to be sold in communities, benefiting both our agriculture industry and consumers.”

BACKGROUND

  • Under current law, farmers and ranchers must have their animals processed at a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) certified facility to sell their product commercially. 

  • Many states have a limited amount of USDA-approved processing facilities, which are often at capacity. This makes it expensive and time-consuming for farmers to transport their animals, sometimes across the state or even out of state when they intend to sell the meat to their neighbors. 

THE PRIME ACT

  • The PRIME Act would give states the authority to allow meat from custom-slaughter facilities to be sold for general consumption. This would help relieve the significant shortage of processing capacity and allow small farms, ranches, and slaughterhouses to significantly increase sales.

  • This legislation is also cosponsored by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah). Representatives Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky) introduced a companion bill in the House of Representatives.