[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1359 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1359

To amend the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to require the domestic production 
                         of food stamp coupons.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

               August 4 (legislative day, June 30), 1993

 Mr. Leahy (for himself, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Simon, Ms. Moseley-Braun, Mr. 
     Wofford, Mr. Pryor, Mr. Kerrey, Mr. Baucus, and Mr. Johnston) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
           Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to require the domestic production 
                         of food stamp coupons.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``National Food Stamp Anti-
Counterfeiting Act of 1993''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) the face value of food stamp coupons printed each year 
        exceeds $20,000,000,000, and more than 27,000,000 residents of 
        the United States participate in the food stamp program 
        authorized under the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et 
        seq.);
            (2) food stamps are a legal obligation of the United 
        States;
            (3) throughout the history of the food stamp program, the 
        policy of the United States Department of Agriculture for the 
        production of food stamp coupons has been to produce the 
        coupons within the United States;
            (4) in 1991, the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate 
        reiterated the expectation of the Committee that the policy 
        would continue;
            (5) the United States Department of Agriculture recently 
        indicated that the Department intends to change the policy of 
        the Department so as to permit foreign production of food 
        stamps;
            (6) removing the production of these legal obligations of 
        the United States from the United States could limit the reach 
        of enforcement authorities of the Federal Government and 
        undermine enforcement of criminal laws on counterfeiting and 
        misappropriation of food stamps, thus threatening the integrity 
        of the food stamp program;
            (7) for security reasons, Federal laws in effect on the 
        date of enactment of this Act already require the domestic 
        production of the distinctive paper used in the manufacturing 
        of other forms of currency and secure paper, such as food 
        stamps; and
            (8) it is in the public interest for food stamps to be 
        produced domestically to enable law enforcement agencies to 
        prevent counterfeiting and theft.

SEC. 3. DOMESTIC PRINTING REQUIREMENT FOR FOOD STAMP COUPONS.

    Section 7(a) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 2016(a)) is 
amended by inserting after ``shall be printed'' the following: ``within 
the United States and''.

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