[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3993 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3993

To amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, as recently amended by 
 the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and 
      Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004, to expedite the 
 implementation of the country of origin labeling requirements of such 
Act, to impose certain recordkeeping requirements on retailers subject 
 to such Act, to clarify the authority to impose civil penalties under 
                   such Act, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 18, 2004

    Mrs. Bono (for herself and Ms. Hooley of Oregon) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, as recently amended by 
 the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and 
      Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004, to expedite the 
 implementation of the country of origin labeling requirements of such 
Act, to impose certain recordkeeping requirements on retailers subject 
 to such Act, to clarify the authority to impose civil penalties under 
                   such Act, 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 ``Country-of-Origin Labeling 
Enhancement Act of 2004''.

SEC. 2. EXPEDITED IMPLEMENTATION OF COUNTRY OF ORIGIN LABELING 
              REQUIREMENTS.

    Section 285 of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. 
1638d), as amended by section 749 of the Agriculture, Rural 
Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act, 2004 (division A of Public Law 108-199; 118 Stat. 
37), is amended by striking ``September 30, 2006, except for `farm-
raised fish' and `wild fish' which shall be September 30, 2004'' and 
inserting ``September 30, 2004''.

SEC. 3. MAINTENANCE OF RECORDS AND ANIMAL IDENTIFICATION.

    Section 282 of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. 
1638a) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (e), by adding at the end the following 
        new sentence: ``A retailer shall maintain records of country of 
        origin information for not less than 180 days at a location 
        selected by the retailer.''; and
            (2) in subsection (f), by striking paragraph (1) and 
        inserting the following new paragraph:
            ``(1) National animal identification system.--After the 
        implementation of a national animal identification system, the 
        Secretary shall use information collected under that system to 
        augment verification under this section.''.

SEC. 4. ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY.

    Section 283 of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. 
1638b) is amended by striking subsection (c) and inserting the 
following new subsection:
    ``(c) Civil Money Penalties.--If, on completion of the 30-day 
period described in subsection (b)(2) with respect to a retailer, the 
Secretary determines, after providing notice and an opportunity for a 
hearing, that the retailer knowingly violated section 282, the 
Secretary shall impose on the retailer a civil money penalty with 
respect to the violation. The amount of the civil money penalty for a 
violation may not exceed the product obtained by multiplying--
            ``(1) 5 percent of the average monthly retail price (as 
        determined by the Secretary) of the commodity that is not 
        labeled in accordance with this subtitle; by
            ``(2) the quantity of the commodity that is not labeled in 
        accordance with this subtitle.''.
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