[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1644 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1644

 To amend the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921, to limit the number of 
 packer-owned swine that certain packers may slaughter in any calendar 
                                 year.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 23, 2003

 Mr. Grassley 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 limit the number of 
 packer-owned swine that certain packers may slaughter in any calendar 
                                 year.

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

SECTION 1. ANNUAL LIMITATION ON NUMBER OF PACKER-OWNED SWINE 
              SLAUGHTERED BY CERTAIN PACKERS.

    (a) In General.--Title II of the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921 
(7 U.S.C. 191 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

    ``Subtitle C--Annual Limitation on Number of Packer-Owned Swine 
                     Slaughtered by Certain Packers

``SEC. 231. DEFINITIONS.

    ``In this subtitle:
            ``(1) Affiliate.--The term `affiliate' has the meaning 
        given the term in section 231 of the Agricultural Marketing Act 
        of 1946 (7 U.S.C. 1635i).
            ``(2) Packer.--The term `packer' has the meaning given the 
        term in section 231 of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 
        (7 U.S.C. 1635i).
            ``(3) Packer-owned swine.--The term `packer-owned swine' 
        means swine that a packer (including a subsidiary or affiliate 
        of the packer) owns for at least 7 days (excluding any Saturday 
        or Sunday) before slaughter.
            ``(4) Slaughter capacity.--The term `slaughter capacity' 
        means the total number of swine that a packer (including a 
        subsidiary or affiliate of the packer) could slaughter in a 
        calendar year if all federally inspected swine processing 
        plants operated by the packer were operated at full capacity 
        for 260 days each calendar year.
            ``(5) Swine.--The term `swine' has the meaning given the 
        term in section 231 of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 
        (7 U.S.C. 1635i).

``SEC. 232. UNLAWFUL PRACTICE.

    ``It shall be unlawful for any packer with an annual slaughter 
capacity of more than 20,000,000 swine to slaughter more than 
10,000,000 packer-owned swine in any calendar year.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--
            (1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), the amendment 
        made by subsection (a) takes effect on the date of enactment of 
        this Act.
            (2) Existing packers.--In the case of a packer that, on the 
        date of enactment of this Act, would otherwise be in violation 
        of section 232 of the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921 (as 
        added by subsection (a)), the amendment made by subsection (a) 
        takes effect on the date that is 18 months after the date of 
        enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>