[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3976 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3976

   To provide a mechanism for the determination on the merits of the 
   claims of claimants who met the class criteria in a civil action 
relating to racial discrimination by the Department of Agriculture but 
                  who were denied that determination.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 28, 2006

Mr. Allen (for himself and Mr. Grassley) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To provide a mechanism for the determination on the merits of the 
   claims of claimants who met the class criteria in a civil action 
relating to racial discrimination by the Department of Agriculture but 
                  who were denied that determination.

    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 ``Pigford Claims Remedy Act of 2006''.

SEC. 2. DETERMINATION ON MERITS OF PIGFORD CLAIMS.

    (a) In General.--Any Pigford claimant who has not previously 
obtained a determination on the merits of a Pigford claim may, in a 
civil action, obtain that determination.
    (b) Intent of Congress as to Remedial Nature of Section.--It is the 
intent of Congress that this section be liberally construed so as to 
effectuate its remedial purpose of giving a full determination on the 
merits for each Pigford claim denied that determination.
    (c) Definitions.--In this Act--
            (1) the term ``Pigford claimant'' means an individual who 
        previously submitted a late-filing request under section 5(g) 
        of the consent decree in the case of Pigford v. Glickman, 
        approved by the United States District Court for the District 
        of Columbia on April 14, 1999; and
            (2) the term ``Pigford claim'' means a discrimination 
        complaint, as defined by section 1(h) of that consent decree 
        and documented under section 5(b) of that consent decree.
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