S. 1543

One Hundred Sixth Congress

of the

United States of America

AT THE FIRST SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Wednesday,

the sixth day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine

An Act

To amend the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 to release and protect the

release of tobacco production and marketing information.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of

the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. TOBACCO PRODUCTION AND MARKETING INFORMATION.

Part I of subtitle B of title III of the Agricultural Adjustment

Act of 1938 (7 U.S.C. 1311 et seq.) is amended by adding at

the end the following:

‘‘SEC. 320D. TOBACCO PRODUCTION AND MARKETING INFORMATION.

‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law,

the Secretary may, subject to subsection (b), release marketing

information submitted by persons relating to the production and

marketing of tobacco to State trusts or similar organizations

engaged in the distribution of national trust funds to tobacco producers and other persons with interests associated with the production of tobacco, as determined by the Secretary.

‘‘(b) LIMITATIONS.— ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Information may be released under subsection (a) only to the extent that—

‘‘(A) the release is in the interest of tobacco producers,

as determined by the Secretary; and

‘‘(B) the information is released to a State trust or

other organization that is created to, or charged with,

distributing funds to tobacco producers or other parties

with an interest in tobacco production or tobacco farms

under a national or State trust or settlement.

‘‘(2) EXEMPTION FROM RELEASE.—The Secretary shall, to

the maximum extent practicable, in advance of making a

release of information under subsection (a), allow, by announcement, a period of at least 15 days for persons whose consent

would otherwise be required by law to effectuate the release,

to elect to be exempt from the release.

‘‘(c) ASSISTANCE.—

‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In making a release under subsection

(a), the Secretary may provide such other assistance with

respect to information released under subsection (a) as will

facilitate the interest of producers in receiving the funds that

are the subject of a trust described in subsection (a).

‘‘(2) FUNDS.—The Secretary shall use amounts made available for salaries and expenses of the Department to carry

out paragraph (1).

‘‘(d) RECORDS.—
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—A person that obtains information

described in subsection (a) shall maintain records that are

consistent with the purposes of the release and shall not use

the records for any purpose not authorized under this section.

‘‘(2) PENALTY.—A person that knowingly violates this subsection shall be fined not more than $10,000, imprisoned not

more than 1 year, or both.

‘‘(e) APPLICATION.—This section shall not apply to—

‘‘(1) records submitted by cigarette manufacturers with

respect to the production of cigarettes;

‘‘(2) records that were submitted as expected purchase

intentions in connection with the establishment of national

tobacco quotas; or

‘‘(3) records that aggregate the purchases of particular

buyers.’’.

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.