[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 364 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 364

To clarify the eligibility of certain small businesses for loans under 
the Small Business Act, to aid, protect, and preserve small businesses 
       in meat production and marketing, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 5, 1993

  Mr. Smith of Iowa introduced the following bill; which was referred 
      jointly to the Committees on Agriculture and Small Business

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To clarify the eligibility of certain small businesses for loans under 
the Small Business Act, to aid, protect, and preserve small businesses 
       in meat production and marketing, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be 
cited as the ``Small Business Meat Producer and Marketer Protection Act 
of 1993''.
    Section 1. The Small Business Act is hereby amended as follows:
            (a) by inserting in section 3 before the word ``credit'' 
        the word ``sufficient'', and by inserting after the word 
        ``conditions'' the words ``and at reasonable rates''; and
            (b) by inserting in section 18(a) after the word 
        ``moratorium'' the following: ``or if the agency has 
        promulgated and is operating and administering a loan program 
        under which all qualified applicants are not being granted 
        loans,''.
    Sec. 2. Congressional Finding and Declaration of Policy.--
    (a) The Congress finds that the existence, in industries engaged in 
commerce or in the production, processing, manufacturing, and 
distribution of livestock and meat food products for commerce, of 
marketing conditions detrimental to the maintenance of a free and 
competitive environment needed for the health, efficiency, and general 
well-being of business (1) causes commerce and the channels and 
instrumentalities of commerce to be used to spread and perpetuate such 
conditions among businesses located in the several States; (2) burdens 
commerce and the free flow of livestock and meat food products in 
commerce; (3) constitutes an unfair method of competition in commerce; 
(4) leads to a burdening and obstruction of commerce and the free flow 
of goods in commerce; and (5) interferes with the orderly and fair 
marketing of goods in commerce.
    (b) It is declared to be the policy of this Act, through the 
exercise by Congress of its power to regulate commerce among the 
several States and with foreign nations, to correct and as rapidly as 
practicable to eliminate the conditions above referred to in such 
industries without substantially curtailing the production, processing, 
manufacturing, or distribution of such products.
    Sec. 3. As used in this Act--
            (a) ``Commerce'' means trade, commerce, transportation, 
        transmission or communication among the several States or 
        between any State and any place outside thereof.
            (b) ``Livestock'' means cattle, calves, swine, sheep or 
        lambs, whether alive or dead.
            (c) ``Meat food products'' means all products and by-
        products of the slaughtering and meat packing industry, if 
        edible.
            (d) ``Meatpacker'' means any person engaged in the business 
        of buying livestock for purposes of slaughter or of 
        manufacturing or preparing meats or meat food products for sale 
        or shipment.
            (e) ``Meat marketer'' means any person engaged in the 
        business of buying, selling, brokering, purveying or otherwise 
        dealing in meats or meat food products.
            (f) ``Person'' means one or more individuals, partnerships, 
        associations, corporations, legal representatives, joint stock 
        companies, trustees and receivers in bankruptcy and 
        reorganization, common-law trusts, or any organized group, 
        whether or not incorporated.
            (g) ``Meatpacker or meat marketer engaged in commerce'' 
        means a meatpacker or meat marketer (1) who is engaged in 
        commerce or (2) who has employees engaged in the production, 
        processing, manufacturing or distribution of meat food products 
        for commerce, or employees handling, selling, or otherwise 
        working on meat food products which have been moved in or 
        produced, processed, manufactured, or distributed for commerce 
        by any person and which, during any one of the last three years 
        had annual gross volume of sales made or business done of not 
        less than $250,000 (exclusive of excise taxes at the retail 
        level which are separately stated).
    Sec. 4. (a) It shall be unlawful for any meatpacker engaged in 
commerce to slaughter or cause to be slaughtered, whether by contract, 
business order, or by any other transaction, at any one location during 
any calendar week more than one hundred head of cattle or calves, three 
hundred head of swine, or three hundred head of sheep or lambs which 
were owned prior to slaughter for a period in excess of twenty days by 
such meatpacker or by any person who owns or controls more than 5 per 
centum of the stock, voting power, or control of a meatpacker or by any 
person, subsidiary, or affiliate in which such meatpacker or other 
person owns or controls a total of more than 5 per centum of the stock, 
voting power, or control thereof. The prohibition in this subsection 
shall apply to livestock owned by such meatpacker or such persons or 
subject to their control directly or indirectly by contract, purchase 
order, option, or other arrangement.
    (b) It shall be unlawful for any meatpacker or meat marketer 
engaged in commerce to offer for sale to or to purchase from a 
meatpacker or meat marketer, whether by contract, business order, or by 
any other transaction, during any calendar week more than one hundred 
head of live cattle or calves, three hundred head of live swine, or 
three hundred head of live sheep or lambs which were owned prior to the 
date of sale for a period in excess of twenty days by such meatpacker 
or meat marketer or by any person who owns or controls more than 5 per 
centum of the voting power or control of such meatpacker or meat 
marketer or by any subsidiary or affiliate in which such meatpacker, 
meat retailer or other person owns or controls a total of more than 5 
per centum of the voting power or control thereof. The prohibition in 
this subsection shall apply to livestock owned by such meatpacker or 
meat marketer or such persons or subject to their control directly or 
indirectly by contract, purchase order, option or other arrangement; 
but it shall not be deemed to prohibit any such meatpacker, meat 
marketer, or other person from making, executing or fulfilling a 
contract of sale of any commodity for future delivery on a board of 
trade which has been designated as a contract market by the Commodity 
Futures Trading Commission.
    (c) It shall be unlawful for any meatpacker or meat marketer 
engaged in commerce to contract for the forward delivery of livestock 
if such contract authorizes, directly or indirectly, such meatpacker or 
meat marketer to select the date for the delivery of such livestock 
unless such date is within a period of twenty consecutive calendar 
days.
    Sec. 5. (a) Any person knowingly violating any provision of section 
4 of this Act shall be fined not more than $50,000, or more than $100 
per head of cattle or calves and $25 per head of swine, lambs or sheep 
slaughtered, offered for sale or purchased, or contracted for forward 
delivery in excess of the maximum number permitted by such section, 
whichever amount is greater. A violation by a corporation shall also be 
deemed to be a violation by the individual directors, officers, 
receivers, trustees, or agents of such corporation who authorized, 
ordered or performed any of the conduct constituting the violation in 
whole or in part.
    (b) A violation of this Act which occurs in more than one week 
shall be considered a separate violation for each calendar week during 
which a violation occurs.
    Sec. 6. For the purposes of the Act entitled ``An Act to supplement 
existing laws against unlawful restraints and monopolies, and for other 
purposes'', approved October 15, 1914 (38 Stat. 730), and the Federal 
Trade Commission Act, this Act shall be considered to be an antitrust 
law.
    Sec. 7. If any provision of this Act or the application thereof to 
any person or circumstance is held invalid, the validity of the 
remainder of this Act and the application of such provision to other 
persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

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