II

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 1939

To improve reporting in the livestock industry and to ensure the

competitiveness of livestock producers, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JULY 10, 1996

Mr. CONRAD (for himself, Mr. DORGAN, and Mr. KERREY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

A BILL

To improve reporting in the livestock industry and to ensure

the competitiveness of livestock producers, and for other

purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Livestock Market Revi5 talization Act of 1996’’.

6 SEC. 2. CAPTIVE SUPPLY.

7 (a) DEFINITION OF CAPTIVE SUPPLY.—Section 2(a)

8 of the Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921 (7 U.S.C.

9 182(a)), is amended by adding at the end the following:
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1 ‘‘(12) CAPTIVE SUPPLY.—The term ‘captive

2 supply’ means livestock acquired for slaughter by a

3 packer (including livestock delivered 7 days or more

4 before slaughter) under a standing purchase ar5 rangement, forward contract, or packer ownership,

6 feeding, or financing arrangement, as determined by

7 the Secretary.’’.

8 (b) ANNUAL REPORT ON LIVESTOCK MARKETED OR

9 SLAUGHTERED.—Section 407 of the Packers and Stock10 yards Act, 1921 (7 U.S.C. 228), is amended by adding

11 at the end the following:

12 ‘‘(f) ANNUAL REPORT ON LIVESTOCK MARKETED OR

13 SLAUGHTERED.—

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall make

15 available to the public an annual statistical report on

16 the number and volume of livestock marketed or

17 slaughtered in the United States, including—

18 ‘‘(A) information collected on the date of

19 enactment of this Act; and

20 ‘‘(B) information on transactions involving

21 livestock in regional and local markets.

22 ‘‘(2) ADMINISTRATION.—In carrying out para23 graph (1), the Secretary shall ensure that—

24 ‘‘(A) a significant share of regional and

25 local livestock transactions are reported; and
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1 ‘‘(B) the confidentiality of individual live2 stock transactions is maintained.’’.

3 (c) INFORMATION ON CAPTIVE SUPPLY TRANS4 ACTIONS.—Section 407 of the Packers and Stockyards

5 Act, 1921 (7 U.S.C. 228), as amended by subsection (b),

6 is amended by adding at the end the following:

7 ‘‘(g) INFORMATION ON CAPTIVE SUPPLY TRANS8 ACTIONS.—

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 24 hours

10 after a transaction involving captive supply is re11 corded, the Secretary shall make information con12 cerning the transaction (including the specific stand13 ing arrangement) available to the public using elec14 tronic and other means that will ensure wide avail15 ability of the information.

16 ‘‘(2) ONGOING LIVESTOCK TRANSACTIONS.—

17 Any information collected on captive supply under

18 paragraph (1) shall be reported in conjunction with

19 ongoing livestock transactions.’’.

20 SEC. 3. MONITORING OF ANTITRUST AND ANTICOMPETI21 TIVE BEHAVIOR AMONG PACKERS AND

22 STOCKYARDS.

23 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 407 of the Packers and

24 Stockyards Act, 1921 (7 U.S.C. 228) (as amended by sec25 tion 2(c)), is amended by adding at the end the following:
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1 ‘‘(h) MONITORING OF ANTITRUST AND ANTI2 COMPETITIVE BEHAVIOR.—

3 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall—

4 ‘‘(A) review and monitor the degree of

5 antitrust and anticompetitive behavior on a na6 tional, regional, and local basis (as defined by

7 the Secretary) among packers, stockyard own8 ers, market agencies, and dealers to ensure

9 compliance with Federal law and to ensure that

10 actions taken by packers, stockyard owners,

11 market agencies, and dealers will enhance, and

12 not diminish, competitiveness; and

13 ‘‘(B) report the results of the review and

14 monitoring to Congress, the Attorney General,

15 and the public.

16 ‘‘(2) COORDINATION.—The Secretary and the

17 Attorney General shall coordinate efforts to ensure

18 that packers, stockyard owners, market agencies,

19 and dealers do not violate Federal law relating to

20 antitrust and anticompetitive behavior.’’.

21 (b) REPORTS.—Not later than 60 days after the date

22 of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall

23 submit to the Committee on Agriculture of the House of

24 Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutri25 tion, and Forestry of the Senate—
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1 (1) a report that—

2 (A) assesses the resource needs of the De3 partment of Agriculture for effectively carrying

4 out section 407(h) of the Packers and Stock5 yards Act, 1971 (7 U.S.C. 228(h)) (as added by

6 subsection (a)); and

7 (B) includes a request for any additional

8 funding that may be required for effectively

9 carrying out section 407(h) of the Act; and

10 (2) a report that assesses progress in imple11 menting additional monitoring activities identifying

12 geographical procurement markets described in the

13 report entitled ‘‘Monitoring by Packers and Stock14 yard Administration’’, dated October 1991 (GAO/

15 RCED–92–36).

16 SEC. 4. COLLECTION AND DISSEMINATION OF MARKETING

17 INFORMATION.

18 Section 204(g) of the Agricultural Marketing Act of

19 1946 (7 U.S.C. 1622(g)) is amended by adding at the end

20 the following: ‘‘In carrying out this subsection, on a na21 tional, regional, and local basis (as defined by the Sec22 retary), the Secretary shall—

23 ‘‘(1) provide price information, with emphasis

24 on providing the information at the point of sale;
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1 ‘‘(2) provide price and other information on a

2 regular and timely basis;

3 ‘‘(3) make the information available to the pub4 lic electronically;

5 ‘‘(4) collect and disseminate information sup6 plied by packers (as defined in section 201 of the

7 Packers and Stockyards Act, 1921 (7 U.S.C. 191))

8 on contract pricing related to captive supply (as de9 fined in section 2 of the Act (7 U.S.C. 182));

10 ‘‘(5) to the extent practicable, promote the use

11 of consistent, value-based pricing methodology

12 throughout the meat industry; and

13 ‘‘(6) report, on a weekly basis, the volume of

14 cattle and meat products imported into the United

15 States.’’.

16 SEC. 5. COOPERATIVE BARGAINING.

17 Section 4 of the Agricultural Fair Practices Act of

18 1967 (7 U.S.C. 2303) is amended by adding at the end

19 the following:

20 ‘‘(g) To fail to engage in good-faith negotiations with

21 producer cooperatives (including new cooperatives), or to

22 unfairly discriminate among producer cooperatives (in23 cluding new cooperatives), with respect to the purchase,

24 acquisition, or other handling of agricultural products.’’.
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1 SEC. 6. LABELING OF MEAT AND MEAT FOOD PRODUCTS.

2 Section 7(b) of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (21

3 U.S.C. 607(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘require,’’ and all

4 that follows through the period at the end and inserting

5 ‘‘require—

6 ‘‘(1) the information required under section

7 1(n); and

8 ‘‘(2) if it was imported (or was produced from

9 an animal that was located in another country for at

10 least 120 days) and is graded, a grading labeling

11 that bears the words ‘imported’, ‘may have been im12 ported’, ‘this product contains imported meat’, ‘this

13 product may contain imported meat’, ‘this container

14 contains imported meat’, or ‘this container may con15 tain imported meat’, as the case may be, or words

16 to indicate its country of origin.’’.

17 SEC. 7. LIVESTOCK INDUSTRY COMMISSION.

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Agriculture

19 shall, in consultation with representatives of the livestock

20 industry, establish a national commission composed of

21 nongovernmental members appointed by the Secretary to

22 study and recommend means of modernizing the livestock

23 industry and responding to the consumer demand for red

24 meat.
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1 (b) STUDY.—In carrying out this section, the com2 mission shall analyze costs and benefits, and make rec3 ommendations with respect to—

4 (1) value-added livestock products;

5 (2) the impact of antitrust and anticompetitive

6 behavior on cattle prices;

7 (3) the grading system for meat used by the

8 Secretary; and

9 (4) refunds of assessments collected under the

10 Beef Research and Information Act (7 U.S.C. 2901

11 et seq.).

12 (c) REPORT.—Not later January 1, 2000, the com13 mission shall submit a report the describes the results of

14 the study required under this section to the Committee

15 on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and the

16 Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the

17 Senate.

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