[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 81 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 81

To amend the Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983 to require that 
 members of the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board be elected 
     by milk producers and to prohibit bloc voting by cooperative 
 associations of milk producers in the election of the producers, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 21, 1997

Mr. Kohl (for himself and Mr. Feingold) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, 
                        Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983 to require that 
 members of the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board be elected 
     by milk producers and to prohibit bloc voting by cooperative 
 associations of milk producers in the election of the producers, and 
                          for other purposes.

    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 Dairy Promotion Reform Act 
of 1997''.

SEC. 2. DAIRY VOTING REFORM.

    Section 113(b) of the Dairy Production Stabilization Act of 1983 (7 
U.S.C. 4504(b)) is amended--
            (1) by designating the first and second sentences as 
        paragraphs (1) and (2), respectively;
            (2) by designating the third through fifth sentences as 
        paragraph (3);
            (3) by designating the sixth sentence as paragraph (4);
            (4) by designating the seventh and eighth sentences as 
        paragraph (5);
            (5) by designating the ninth sentence as paragraph (6);
            (6) in paragraph (1) (as so designated), by striking ``and 
        appointment'';
            (7) by striking paragraph (2) (as so designated) and 
        inserting the following:
            ``(2) Qualifications, nomination, and election of 
        members.--
                    ``(A) Qualifications and election.--
                            ``(i) In general.--Subject to clause (ii), 
                        each member of the Board shall be a milk 
                        producer nominated in accordance with 
                        subparagraph (B) and elected by a vote of 
                        producers through a process established by the 
                        Secretary.
                            ``(ii) Bloc voting.--In carrying out clause 
                        (i), the Secretary shall not permit an 
                        organization certified under section 114 to 
                        vote on behalf of the members of the 
                        organization.
                    ``(B) Nominations.--
                            ``(i) Source.--Nominations shall be 
                        submitted by organizations certified under 
                        section 114, or, if the Secretary determines 
                        that a substantial number of milk producers are 
                        not members of, or the interests of the 
                        producers are not represented by, a certified 
                        organization, from nominations submitted by the 
                        producers in the manner authorized by the 
                        Secretary.
                            ``(ii) Consultation with members.--In 
                        submitting nominations, each certified 
                        organization shall demonstrate to the 
                        satisfaction of the Secretary that the milk 
                        producers who are members of the organization 
                        have been fully consulted in the nomination 
                        process.'';
            (8) in the first sentence of paragraph (3) (as so 
        designated), by striking ``In making such appointments,'' and 
        inserting ``In establishing the process for the election of 
        members of the Board,''; and
            (9) in paragraph (4) (as so designated)--
                    (A) by striking ``appointment'' and inserting 
                ``election''; and
                    (B) by striking ``appointments'' and inserting 
                ``elections''.
                                 <all>