[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2630 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2630

 To prohibit products that contain dry ultra-filtered milk products or 
  casein from being labeled as domestic natural cheese, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 25, 2000

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

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To prohibit products that contain dry ultra-filtered milk products or 
  casein from being labeled as domestic natural cheese, 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 ``Quality Cheese Act of 2000''.

SEC. 2. NATURAL CHEESE STANDARD.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1)(A) any change in domestic natural cheese standards to 
        allow dry ultra-filtered milk products or casein to be labeled 
        as domestic natural cheese would result in increased costs to 
        the dairy price support program; and
            (B) that change would be unfair to taxpayers, who would be 
        forced to pay more program costs;
            (2) any change in domestic natural cheese standards to 
        allow dry ultra-filtered milk products or casein to be labeled 
        as domestic natural cheese would result in lower revenues for 
        dairy farmers;
            (3) any change in domestic natural cheese standards to 
        allow dry ultra-filtered milk products or casein to be labeled 
        as domestic natural cheese would cause dairy products 
        containing dry ultra-filtered milk or casein to become 
        vulnerable to contamination and would compromise the 
        sanitation, hydrosanitary, and phytosanitary standards of the 
        United States dairy industry; and
            (4) changing the labeling standard for domestic natural 
        cheese would be misleading to the consumer.
    (b) Prohibition.--Section 401 of the Federal Food, Drug, and 
Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 341) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``Whenever'' and inserting ``(a) 
        Whenever''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(b)(1) The Commissioner may not use any Federal funds to amend 
section 133.3 of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (or any 
corresponding similar regulation or ruling), to include dry ultra-
filtered milk or casein in the definition of the term `milk' or `nonfat 
milk', as specified in the standards of identity for cheese and cheese 
products published at part 133 of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations 
(or any corresponding similar regulation or ruling).
    ``(2)(A) The Commissioner may not amend such section 133.3 (or any 
corresponding similar regulation or ruling) to include wet ultra-
filtered milk in the definition described in paragraph (1), until 60 
days after the Commissioner, in conjunction with the Secretary of 
Agriculture, submits the report described in subparagraph (B).
    ``(B) The Commissioner, in conjunction with the Secretary of 
Agriculture shall conduct a study on the manner in which the use of wet 
ultra-filtered milk impacts dairy farmers, and submit a report 
containing the results of the study to the appropriate committees of 
Congress.''.
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