[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1738 Introduced in Senate (IS)]






106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1738

To amend the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921, to make it unlawful for 
  a packer to own, feed, or control livestock intended for slaughter.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 15, 1999

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921, to make it unlawful for 
  a packer to own, feed, or control livestock intended for slaughter.

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

SECTION 1. PROHIBITION ON PACKERS OWNING, FEEDING, OR CONTROLLING 
              LIVESTOCK.

    (a) In General.--Section 202 of the Packers and Stockyards Act, 
1921 (7 U.S.C. 192), is amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsections (f) and (g) as subsections 
        (g) and (h), respectively;
            (2) by inserting after subsection (e) the following:
    ``(f) Own, feed, or control livestock intended for slaughter (for 
more than 14 days prior to slaughter and acting through the packer or a 
person that directly or indirectly controls, or is controlled by or 
under common control with, the packer), except that this subsection 
shall not apply to--
            ``(1) a cooperative, if a majority of the ownership 
        interest in the cooperative is held by active cooperative 
        members that--
                    ``(A) own, feed, or control livestock; and
                    ``(B) provide the livestock to the cooperative for 
                slaughter; or
            ``(2) a packer that is owned or controlled by producers of 
        a type of livestock, if during a calendar year the packer 
        slaughters less than 2 percent of the head of that type of 
        livestock slaughtered in the United States; or''; and
            (3) in subsection (h) (as so redesignated), by striking 
        ``or (e)'' and inserting ``(e), or (f)''.
    (b) Effective Date.--
            (1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), the amendments 
        made by subsection (a) take effect on the date of enactment of 
        this Act.
            (2) Transition rules.--In the case of a packer that on the 
        date of enactment of this Act owns, feeds, or controls 
        livestock intended for slaughter in violation of section 202(f) 
        of the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921 (as amended by 
        subsection (a)), the amendments made by subsection (a) apply to 
        the packer--
                    (A) in the case of a packer of swine, beginning on 
                the date that is 18 months after the date of enactment 
                of this Act; and
                    (B) in the case of a packer of any other type of 
                livestock, beginning as soon as practicable, but not 
                later than 180 days, after the date of enactment of 
                this Act, as determined by the Secretary of 
                Agriculture.
                                 <all>