| S 1644 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.
`(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.'.
(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.
END
|