[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2712 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2712

   To require that purchases of agricultural commodities made by the 
   Secretary of Agriculture under the Food Purchase and Distribution 
Program be from domestically owned enterprises, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 14, 2019

  Ms. DeLauro (for herself and Mr. McGovern) introduced the following 
        bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require that purchases of agricultural commodities made by the 
   Secretary of Agriculture under the Food Purchase and Distribution 
Program be from domestically owned enterprises, 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 ``Buy American Agriculture Act''.

SEC. 2. AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES PURCHASED FROM DOMESTICALLY OWNED 
              ENTERPRISES.

    (a) Buy America Requirement.--
            (1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), in 
        making purchase of agricultural commodities and seafood under 
        the Food Purchase and Distribution Program, the Secretary of 
        Agriculture, acting through the Administrator of the 
        Agricultural Marketing Service, may only make such purchases 
        from domestically owned enterprises.
            (2) Exception.--Paragraph (1) shall not apply if the 
        Secretary of Agriculture determines that applying such 
        paragraph--
                    (A) would be inconsistent with the public interest;
                    (B) is not possible because agricultural 
                commodities and seafood produced by domestically owned 
                enterprises, as determined by the Secretary of 
                Agriculture, are not produced--
                            (i) in sufficient quantities; or
                            (ii) in a satisfactory quality; or
                    (C) would result in a greater than 25 percent 
                increase between--
                            (i) the amount necessary to apply such 
                        paragraph in a fiscal year; and
                            (ii) the amount spent by the Agricultural 
                        Marketing Service in purchasing agricultural 
                        commodities and seafood under the Food Purchase 
                        and Distribution Program in the fiscal year 
                        prior to such fiscal year.
            (3) Publication of waivers.--If the Secretary of 
        Agriculture determines that paragraph (1) should not apply due 
        to a condition specified in subparagraphs (A) through (C) of 
        paragraph (2), the Secretary of Agriculture shall publish in 
        the Federal Register a report that includes such determination.
    (b) Publication of Awards.--In publishing the awards made to 
vendors under the purchase programs under the Agricultural Marketing 
Service, the Secretary of Agriculture shall include the determination 
of such award and whether the entity receiving such an award is a 
domestically owned enterprise.
    (c) Application of Section.--This section shall be applied in a 
manner consistent with the United States obligations under 
international agreements.
    (d) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Agricultural commodity.--The term ``agricultural 
        commodity'' has the meaning given the term under section 102(1) 
        of the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 5602(1)).
            (2) Seafood.--The term ``seafood'' means finfish, 
        shellfish, or aquatic plants that are farm-raised or harvested 
        from the wild.
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