II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 802

To provide for a gradual reduction in the loan rate for peanuts, to repeal

peanut quotas for the 2002 and subsequent crops, and to require the

Secretary of Agriculture to purchase peanuts and peanut products for

nutrition programs only at the world market price.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

APRIL 14, 1999

Mr. SANTORUM (for himself, Mr. CHAFEE, Mr. GREGG, Mr. FEINGOLD, Mr.

DEWINE, Mr. BROWNBACK, Mr. SPECTER, and Ms. COLLINS) introduced

the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee

on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

A BILL

To provide for a gradual reduction in the loan rate for

peanuts, to repeal peanut quotas for the 2002 and subsequent crops, and to require the Secretary of Agriculture

to purchase peanuts and peanut products for nutrition

programs only at the world market price.

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

3 SECTION 1. REDUCTION IN LOAN RATES FOR PEANUTS.

4 Section 155(a) of the Agricultural Market Transition

5 Act (7 U.S.C. 7271(a)) is amended by striking paragraph

6 (2) and inserting the following:
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1 ‘‘(2) LOAN RATE.—The national average quota

2 loan rate for quota peanuts shall be as follows:

3 ‘‘(A) $610 per ton for the 1999 crop.

4 ‘‘(B) $550 per ton for the 2000 crop.

5 ‘‘(C) $500 per ton for the 2001 crop.’’.

6 SEC. 2. NONRECOURSE LOANS FOR 2002 AND SUBSEQUENT

7 CROPS OF PEANUTS.

8 Effective beginning with the 2002 crop of peanuts,

9 section 155 of the Agricultural Market Transition Act (7

10 U.S.C. 7271) is amended to read as follows:

11 ‘‘SEC. 155. PEANUT PROGRAM.

12 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—

13 ‘‘(1) LOANS.—The Secretary shall make non14 recourse loans available to producers of peanuts for

15 each of the 2002 and subsequent crops of peanuts.

16 ‘‘(2) RATE.—In carrying out paragraph (1), the

17 Secretary shall offer to all peanut producers non18 recourse loans at a level not less than 85 percent of

19 the simple average price received by producers for

20 peanuts, as determined by the Secretary, during the

21 marketing year for each of the immediately pre22 ceding 5 crops of peanuts, excluding the year in

23 which the average price was the highest and the year

24 in which the average price was the lowest during the

25 period, but not more than $350 per ton. The loans
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1 shall be administered at no net cost to the Com2 modity Credit Corporation.

3 ‘‘(3) INSPECTION, HANDLING, OR STORAGE.—

4 The levels of support determined under paragraph

5 (2) shall not be reduced by any deduction for inspec6 tion, handling, or storage.

7 ‘‘(4) MARKETING OF PEANUTS OWNED OR CON8 TROLLED BY THE COMMODITY CREDIT CORPORA9 TION.—Any peanuts owned or controlled by the

10 Commodity Credit Corporation may be made avail11 able for domestic edible use, in accordance with reg12 ulations issued by the Secretary, so long as doing so

13 results in no net cost to the Commodity Credit Cor14 poration.

15 ‘‘(5) LOCATION AND OTHER FACTORS.—The

16 Secretary may make adjustments for the location of

17 peanuts and such other factors as are authorized by

18 section 403.

19 ‘‘(6) ANNOUNCEMENT.—The Secretary shall

20 announce the level of support for each crop of pea21 nuts not later than the February 15 preceding the

22 marketing year for which the level of support is

23 being determined.
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1 ‘‘(b) COMMODITY CREDIT CORPORATION.—The Sec2 retary shall carry out the program authorized by this sec3 tion through the Commodity Credit Corporation.

4 ‘‘(c) CROPS.—This section shall be effective for each

5 of the 2002 and subsequent crops of peanuts.’’.

6 SEC. 3. ELIMINATION OF PEANUT QUOTAS FOR 2002 AND

7 SUBSEQUENT CROPS OF PEANUTS.

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Part VI of subtitle B of title III

9 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (7 U.S.C.

10 1357 et seq.) is repealed.

11 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—

12 (1) DEFINITIONS.—Section 301(b) of the Agri13 cultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (7 U.S.C. 1301(b))

14 is amended—

15 (A) in paragraph (3)(A), by striking ‘‘corn,

16 rice, and peanuts’’ and inserting ‘‘corn and

17 rice’’;

18 (B) in paragraph (6), by striking subpara19 graph (C);

20 (C) in paragraph (10)(A)—

21 (i) by striking ‘‘wheat, and peanuts’’

22 and inserting ‘‘and wheat’’; and

23 (ii) by striking ‘‘; 20 per centum in

24 the case of wheat; and 15 per centum in
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1 the case of peanuts’’ and inserting ‘‘; and

2 20 percent in the case of wheat’’;

3 (D) in paragraph (13)—

4 (i) by striking subparagraphs (B) and

5 (C); and

6 (ii) in subparagraph (G), by striking

7 ‘‘or peanuts’’ both places it appears; and

8 (E) in paragraph (16)(A), by striking

9 ‘‘rice, and peanuts’’ and inserting ‘‘and rice’’.

10 (2) ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS.—Section 361

11 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (7

12 U.S.C. 1361) is amended by striking ‘‘peanuts,’’.

13 (3) ADJUSTMENT OF QUOTAS.—Section 371 of

14 the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (7 U.S.C.

15 1371) is amended—

16 (A) in the first sentence of subsection (a),

17 by striking ‘‘peanuts,’’; and

18 (B) in the first sentence of subsection (b),

19 by striking ‘‘peanuts’’.

20 (4) REPORTS AND RECORDS.—Section 373 of

21 the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (7 U.S.C.

22 1373) is amended—

23 (A) in subsection (a), by striking the first

24 sentence and inserting the following new sen25 tence: ‘‘This subsection shall apply to ware-
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1 housemen, processors, and common carriers of

2 corn, wheat, cotton, rice, or tobacco, and all

3 ginners of cotton, all persons engaged in the

4 business of purchasing corn, wheat, cotton, rice,

5 or tobacco from producers, and all persons en6 gaged in the business of redrying, prizing, or

7 stemming tobacco for producers.’’; and

8 (B) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘pea9 nuts,’’.

10 (5) REGULATIONS.—Section 375(a) of the Agri11 cultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (7 U.S.C. 1375(a))

12 is amended by striking ‘‘peanuts,’’.

13 (6) EMINENT DOMAIN.—The first sentence of

14 section 378(c) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of

15 1938 (7 U.S.C. 1378(c)) is amended by striking

16 ‘‘cotton, tobacco, and peanuts,’’ and inserting ‘‘cot17 ton and tobacco,’’.

18 (c) LIABILITY.—A provision of this section or an

19 amendment made by this section shall not affect the liabil20 ity of any person under any provision of law as in effect

21 before the application of the provision of this section or

22 the amendment in accordance with this section.

23 (d) APPLICATION.—This section and the amend24 ments made by this section shall apply beginning with the

25 2002 crop of peanuts.
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1 SEC. 4. PURCHASE OF PEANUTS FOR NUTRITION PRO2 GRAMS.

3 Section 14 of the National School Lunch Act (42

4 U.S.C. 1762a) is amended by adding at the end the fol5 lowing:

6 ‘‘(h) PURCHASE OF PEANUTS FOR NUTRITION PRO7 GRAMS.—

8 ‘‘(1) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection—

9 ‘‘(A) ADDITIONAL PEANUTS.—The term

10 ‘additional peanuts’ has the meaning given the

11 term in section 358–1(e) of the Agricultural

12 Adjustment Act of 1938 (7 U.S.C. 1358–1(e)).

13 ‘‘(B) COVERED PROGRAM.—The term ‘cov14 ered program’ means—

15 ‘‘(i) a program established under this

16 Act;

17 ‘‘(ii) a program established under the

18 Child Nutrition Act of 1966 (42 U.S.C.

19 1771 et seq.);

20 ‘‘(iii) the emergency food assistance

21 program established under the Emergency

22 Food Assistance Act of 1983 (7 U.S.C.

23 7501 et seq.);

24 ‘‘(iv) the food distribution program on

25 Indian reservations established under sec-
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1 tion 4(b) of the Food Stamp Act of 1977

2 (7 U.S.C. 2013(b));

3 ‘‘(v) the commodity distribution pro4 gram established under section 4 of the

5 Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act

6 of 1973 (Public Law 93–86; 7 U.S.C. 612c

7 note);

8 ‘‘(vi) the commodity supplemental

9 food program established under section 5

10 of the Agriculture and Consumer Protec11 tion Act of 1973 (Public Law 93–86; 7

12 U.S.C. 612c note); and

13 ‘‘(vii) a nutrition program carried out

14 under part C of title III of the Older

15 Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. 3030e

16 et seq.).

17 ‘‘(2) PURCHASES.—Notwithstanding any other

18 provision of law, in purchasing peanuts or peanut

19 products to carry out a covered program, the Sec20 retary shall—

21 ‘‘(A) purchase the peanuts or peanut prod22 ucts at a price that is not more than the pre23 vailing world market price for peanuts or pea24 nut products produced in the United States, as

25 determined by the Secretary; and
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1 ‘‘(B) in the case of peanut purchases, pur2 chase only additional peanuts.

3 ‘‘(3) DOMESTIC EDIBLE USE.—Notwithstanding

4 any other provision of law, additional peanuts pur5 chased by the Secretary to carry out a covered pro6 gram shall not be considered to be peanuts for do7 mestic edible use under the Agricultural Adjustment

8 Act of 1938 (7 U.S.C. 1281 et seq.) or Agricultural

9 Market Transition Act (7 U.S.C. 7201 et seq.).

10 ‘‘(4) SUPPLY.—The Secretary shall take such

11 actions as are necessary to ensure, to the maximum

12 extent practicable, that an adequate supply of addi13 tional peanuts is available to carry out covered pro14 grams.

15 ‘‘(5) PENALTIES.—Notwithstanding any other

16 provision of law, a person that produces additional

17 peanuts that are sold to the Secretary, or sells addi18 tional peanuts to the Secretary, for a covered pro19 gram shall not be subject to a penalty or other sanc20 tion for the production or sale of the additional pea21 nuts.’’.

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