[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4713 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4713

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 8, 2006

 Mr. Boswell introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                        Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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) Prohibition.--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; and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (e) the following new 
        subsection (f):
    ``(f) Own or feed livestock directly, through a subsidiary, or 
through an arrangement that gives the packer operational, managerial, 
or supervisory control over the livestock, or over the farming 
operation that produces the livestock, to such an extent that the 
producer is no longer materially participating in the management of the 
operation with respect to the production of the livestock, except that 
this subsection shall not apply to--
            ``(1) an arrangement entered into within 7 days (excluding 
        any Saturday or Sunday) before slaughter of the livestock by a 
        packer, a person acting through the packer, or a person that 
        directly or indirectly controls, or is controlled by or under 
        common control with, the packer;
            ``(2) a cooperative or entity owned by 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;
            ``(3) a packer that is not required to report to the 
        Secretary on each reporting day (as defined in section 212 of 
        the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 (7 U.S.C. 1635a)) 
        information on the price and quantity of livestock purchased by 
        the packer; or
            ``(4) a packer that owns one livestock processing plant; 
        or''.
    (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 added by subsection 
        (a)), such section shall not apply to the packer--
                    (A) in the case of a packer of swine, until the end 
                of the 18-month period beginning on the date of the 
                enactment of this Act; and
                    (B) in the case of a packer of any other type of 
                livestock, until such date as the Secretary of 
                Agriculture considers practicable, but not later than 
                180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>