[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 515 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 515

   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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            February 7, 2007

   Mr. Grassley (for himself, Mr. Obama, Mr. Biden, and Mr. Kennedy) 
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 2007''.

SEC. 2. DETERMINATION ON MERITS OF PIGFORD CLAIMS.

    (a) In General.--Any Pigford claimant who has not obtained a 
determination on the merits of a Pigford claim before the date of 
enactment of this Act 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 
        submitted, before the date of enactment of this Act, 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.
                                 <all>