II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2927 

To amend the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 to increase interagency 

cooperation in the enforcement of standards for importing organic agricultural products, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 23, 2018 

Ms. BALDWIN (for herself and Mr. TESTER) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 

A BILL 

To amend the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 to 

increase interagency cooperation in the enforcement of 

standards for importing organic agricultural products, 

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 ‘‘Organic Farmer and 

5 Consumer Protection Act of 2018’’. 

6 SEC. 2. EXCLUSIONS FROM CERTIFICATION. 

7 Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment 

8 of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall issue regulaVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:13 May 30, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2927.IS S2927

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1 tions to limit the type of operations that are excluded from 

2 certification under section 205.101 of title 7, Code of Fed3 eral Regulations (or successor regulations), and any other 

4 corresponding sections. 

5 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 

6 Section 2103 of the Organic Foods Production Act 

7 of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 6502) is amended— 

8 (1) in paragraph (3)— 

9 (A) by striking ‘‘The term’’ and inserting 

10 the following: 

11 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term’’; and 

12 (B) by adding at the end the following: 

13 ‘‘(B) FOREIGN OPERATIONS.—When used 

14 in the context of a certifying agent operating in 

15 a foreign country, the term ‘certifying agent’ in16 cludes a certifying agent— 

17 ‘‘(i) accredited in accordance with sec18 tion 2106(b)(1); or 

19 ‘‘(ii) accredited by a foreign govern20 ment that acted under an equivalency ar21 rangement negotiated between the United 

22 States and the foreign government.’’; 

23 (2) by redesignating paragraphs (13) through 

24 (21) as paragraphs (14) through (22), respectively; 

25 and 


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1 (3) by inserting after paragraph (12) the fol2 lowing: 

3 ‘‘(13) NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM IMPORT

4 CERTIFICATE.—The term ‘national organic program 

5 import certificate’ means a form developed for pur6 poses of the program under this title— 

7 ‘‘(A) to provide documentation sufficient to 

8 verify that an agricultural product imported for 

9 sale in the United States satisfies the require10 ment under section 2106(b)(1); and 

11 ‘‘(B) which shall include, at a minimum, 

12 information sufficient to indicate, with respect 

13 to the agricultural product— 

14 ‘‘(i) the origin; 

15 ‘‘(ii) the destination; 

16 ‘‘(iii) the certifying agent issuing the 

17 national organic program import certifi18 cate; 

19 ‘‘(iv) the harmonized tariff code, if a 

20 harmonized tariff code exists for the agri21 cultural product; 

22 ‘‘(v) the total weight; and 

23 ‘‘(vi) the organic standard to which 

24 the agricultural product is certified.’’. 


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1 SEC. 4. DOCUMENTATION AND TRACEABILITY ENHANCE2 MENT; DATA COLLECTION. 

3 Section 2106(b) of the Organic Foods Production Act 

4 of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 6505(b)) is amended— 

5 (1) by striking ‘‘Imported’’ and inserting the 

6 following: 

7 ‘‘(1) STANDARDS FOR IMPORTED PRODUCTS.— 

8 Imported’’; and 

9 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

10 ‘‘(2) FRAUDULENT OR MISREPRESENTED PROD11 UCTS.—The Secretary, to the maximum extent prac12 ticable, shall reduce the risk of fraudulent or mis13 represented organic products entering the United 

14 States and being marketed for sale in the United 

15 States. 

16 ‘‘(3) IMPORT CERTIFICATION.— 

17 ‘‘(A) IMPORT CERTIFICATES.—For an ag18 ricultural product being imported into the 

19 United States to be represented as organically 

20 produced, the Secretary shall require the agri21 cultural product to be accompanied by a com22 plete and valid national organic program import 

23 certificate, which shall be available as an elec24 tronic record. 

25 ‘‘(B) TRACKING SYSTEM.— 


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1 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary 

2 shall establish a system to track national 

3 organic program import certificates. 

4 ‘‘(ii) INTEGRATION.—In establishing 

5 the system under clause (i), the Secretary 

6 may integrate the system into any existing 

7 information tracking systems for imports 

8 of agricultural products. 

9 ‘‘(4) MODERNIZATION OF TRADE TRACKING

10 AND DATA COLLECTION SYSTEMS.— 

11 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall 

12 modernize international trade tracking and data 

13 collection systems of the national organic pro14 gram established under this title. 

15 ‘‘(B) ACTIVITIES.—In carrying out sub16 paragraph (A), the Secretary shall modernize 

17 trade and transaction certificates to ensure full 

18 traceability without unduly hindering trade, 

19 such as through an electronic trade document 

20 exchange system. 

21 ‘‘(5) REPORTS.— 

22 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—On an annual basis, 

23 the Secretary shall submit to Congress and 

24 make publically available on the website of the 

25 Department of Agriculture a report providing 


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1 detailed quantitative data on imports of organi2 cally produced agricultural products accepted 

3 into the United States during the year covered 

4 by the report. 

5 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENTS.—The data de6 scribed in subparagraph (A) shall be broken 

7 down by agricultural product type, quantity, 

8 value, and month. 

9 ‘‘(C) EXCEPTION.—Any data that is spe10 cific enough to be protected as confidential 

11 business information shall not be provided in 

12 the report under subparagraph (A).’’. 

13 SEC. 5. ACCREDITATION PROGRAM. 

14 Section 2115 of the Organic Foods Production Act 

15 of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 6514) is amended— 

16 (1) by redesignating subsection (c) as sub17 section (d); 

18 (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the fol19 lowing: 

20 ‘‘(c) OVERSIGHT OF SATELLITE OFFICES AND FOR21 EIGN OPERATIONS.—As part of the accreditation of certi22 fying agents under this section, the Secretary shall oversee 

23 any certifying agent operating in a foreign country.’’; and 

24 (3) in subsection (d) (as so redesignated)— 


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1 (A) by striking ‘‘section shall’’ and insert2 ing the following: ‘‘section— 

3 ‘‘(1) subject to paragraph (2), shall’’; and 

4 (B) in paragraph (1) (as so designated), by 

5 striking ‘‘Secretary, and may’’ and inserting the 

6 following: ‘‘Secretary; 

7 ‘‘(2) in the case of a certifying agent operating 

8 in a foreign country, shall be for a period of not to 

9 exceed 1 year, as determined appropriate by the Sec10 retary; and 

11 ‘‘(3) may’’. 

12 SEC. 6. INVESTIGATIONS. 

13 Section 2120(b) of the Organic Foods Production Act 

14 (7 U.S.C. 6519(b)) is amended by adding at the end the 

15 following: 

16 ‘‘(3) INFORMATION SHARING DURING ACTIVE

17 INVESTIGATION.—In carrying out this title, all par18 ties conducting an active investigation under this 

19 subsection (including certifying agents, State organic 

20 certification programs, and the national organic pro21 gram) shall share confidential business information 

22 with Federal and State government officers and em23 ployees and certifying agents involved in the inves24 tigation as necessary to fully investigate and enforce 

25 potential violations of this title. 


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1 ‘‘(4) EXPEDITED PROCEDURES FOR FOREIGN

2 OPERATIONS.— 

3 ‘‘(A) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary 

4 shall establish expedited investigative proce5 dures under this subsection to review the ac6 creditation of a certifying agent operating in a 

7 foreign country under any of the circumstances 

8 described in subparagraph (B). 

9 ‘‘(B) EXPEDITED PROCEDURES.—The Sec10 retary shall promptly carry out expedited inves11 tigative procedures established under subpara12 graph (A) to review the accreditation of a certi13 fying agent operating in a foreign country if— 

14 ‘‘(i) the accreditation of the certifying 

15 agent is revoked by a foreign govern16 ment— 

17 ‘‘(I) operating an organic certifi18 cation program described in section 

19 2106(b)(1); or 

20 ‘‘(II) that acted under an equiva21 lency arrangement negotiated between 

22 the United States and the foreign gov23 ernment; or 

24 ‘‘(ii) the Secretary determines that 

25 there is a sudden and substantial increase 


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1 in the rate and quantity of imports of an 

2 individual organically produced agricultural 

3 product from the foreign country, in which 

4 case the expedited investigative procedures 

5 shall be carried out with respect to each 

6 certifying agent of that agricultural prod7 uct in that foreign country.’’. 

8 SEC. 7. DATA ORGANIZATION AND ACCESS. 

9 Section 2122 of the Organic Foods Production Act 

10 of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 6521) is amended by adding at the end 

11 the following: 

12 ‘‘(c) DATA RELATING TO IMPORTS OF ORGANICALLY

13 PRODUCED AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.— 

14 ‘‘(1) ACCESS TO DATA DOCUMENTATION SYS15 TEMS.—The head of each Federal agency that ad16 ministers a cross-border documentation system shall 

17 provide to the head of each other Federal agency 

18 that administers such a system access to available 

19 data from the system, including— 

20 ‘‘(A) the Automated Commercial Environ21 ment system of U.S. Customs and Border Pro22 tection; and 

23 ‘‘(B) the Phytosanitary Certificate 

24 Issuance and Tracking System of the Animal 

25 and Plant Health Inspection Service. 


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1 ‘‘(2) DATA COLLECTION AND ORGANIZATION

2 SYSTEM.— 

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

4 establish a new system or modify an existing 

5 data collection and organization system to col6 lect and organize in a single system quantitative 

7 data on imports of each organically produced 

8 agricultural product accepted into the United 

9 States. 

10 ‘‘(B) ACCESS.—The single system under 

11 subparagraph (A) shall be accessible by any 

12 agency with the authority to engage in— 

13 ‘‘(i) inspection of imports of agricul14 tural products; 

15 ‘‘(ii) trade data collection and organi16 zation; or 

17 ‘‘(iii) enforcement of trade require18 ments for organically produced agricultural 

19 products.’’. 

20 SEC. 8. ORGANIC AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT IMPORTS 

21 INTERAGENCY WORKING GROUP. 

22 The Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 is amend23 ed by inserting after section 2122 (7 U.S.C. 6521) the 

24 following: 


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1 ‘‘SEC. 2122A. ORGANIC AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT IMPORTS 

2 INTERAGENCY WORKING GROUP. 

3 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.— 

4 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary and the Sec5 retary of Homeland Security shall jointly establish a 

6 working group to facilitate coordination and infor7 mation sharing between the Department of Agri8 culture, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and 

9 the Food and Drug Administration relating to im10 ports of organically produced agricultural products 

11 (referred to in this section as the ‘working group’). 

12 ‘‘(2) MEMBERS.—The working group— 

13 ‘‘(A) shall include— 

14 ‘‘(i) the Secretary (or a designee); 

15 ‘‘(ii) the Commissioner of Food and 

16 Drugs (or a designee); and 

17 ‘‘(iii) the Secretary of Homeland Se18 curity (or a designee); and 

19 ‘‘(B) shall not include any non-Federal of20 ficer or employee. 

21 ‘‘(3) DUTIES.—The working group shall facili22 tate coordination and information sharing between 

23 the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Customs and 

24 Border Protection, and the Food and Drug Adminis25 tration for the purposes of— 


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1 ‘‘(A) identifying imports of organically pro2 duced agricultural products; 

3 ‘‘(B) verifying the authenticity of organi4 cally produced agricultural product import doc5 umentation, such as national organic program 

6 import certificates; 

7 ‘‘(C) ensuring imported agricultural prod8 ucts represented as organically produced meet 

9 the requirements under this title; 

10 ‘‘(D) collecting and organizing quantitative 

11 data on imports of organically produced agricul12 tural products; and 

13 ‘‘(E) reporting to Congress on— 

14 ‘‘(i) enforcement activity carried out 

15 by the Department of Agriculture, U.S. 

16 Customs and Border Protection, or the 

17 Food and Drug Administration in the 

18 United States or abroad; and 

19 ‘‘(ii) barriers to preventing agricul20 tural products fraudulently represented as 

21 organically produced from entry into the 

22 United States. 

23 ‘‘(4) DESIGNATED EMPLOYEES AND OFFI24 CIALS.—An employee or official designated to carry 

25 out the duties of the Secretary, the Secretary of 


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1 Homeland Security, or the Commissioner of Food 

2 and Drugs on the working group under subpara3 graph (A) or (B) of paragraph (2) shall be an em4 ployee or official compensated at a rate of pay not 

5 less than the minimum annual rate of basic pay for 

6 GS–12 under section 5332 of title 5, United States 

7 Code. 

8 ‘‘(b) REPORTS.—On an annual basis, the working 

9 group shall submit to Congress and make publically avail10 able on the websites of the Department of Agriculture, 

11 U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Food and 

12 Drug Administration the following reports: 

13 ‘‘(1) ORGANIC TRADE ENFORCEMENT INTER14 AGENCY COORDINATION REPORT.—A report— 

15 ‘‘(A) identifying existing barriers to co16 operation between the agencies involved in agri17 cultural product import inspection, trade data 

18 collection and organization, and organically pro19 duced agricultural product trade enforcement, 

20 including— 

21 ‘‘(i) U.S. Customs and Border Protec22 tion; 

23 ‘‘(ii) the Food and Drug Administra24 tion; 


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1 ‘‘(iii) the Agricultural Marketing Serv2 ice; and 

3 ‘‘(iv) the Animal and Plant Health In4 spection Service; 

5 ‘‘(B) assessing progress toward integrating 

6 organic trade enforcement into import inspec7 tion procedures of U.S. Customs and Border 

8 Protection, the Food and Drug Administration, 

9 and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection 

10 Service, including an assessment of— 

11 ‘‘(i) the status of the development of 

12 systems for— 

13 ‘‘(I) tracking the fumigation of 

14 imports of organically produced agri15 cultural products into the United 

16 States; and 

17 ‘‘(II) electronically verifying na18 tional organic program import certifi19 cate authenticity; and 

20 ‘‘(ii) training of U.S. Customs and 

21 Border Protection personnel on— 

22 ‘‘(I) the use of the systems de23 scribed in clause (i); and 

24 ‘‘(II) requirements and protocols 

25 under this title; 


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1 ‘‘(C) establishing outcome-based goals for 

2 ensuring imports of agricultural products rep3 resented as organically produced meet the re4 quirements under this title; 

5 ‘‘(D) recommending steps to improve the 

6 documentation and traceability of imported or7 ganically produced agricultural products; 

8 ‘‘(E) recommending and describing steps 

9 toward the goals of— 

10 ‘‘(i) achieving complete compliance 

11 with the requirements of this title for all 

12 agricultural products imported into the 

13 United States and represented as organi14 cally produced; and 

15 ‘‘(ii) ensuring accurate labeling and 

16 marketing of imported agricultural prod17 ucts represented as organically produced 

18 by the exporter; 

19 ‘‘(F) providing a timeline for implementing 

20 the steps described in subparagraph (E); 

21 ‘‘(G) identifying additional resources need22 ed to achieve any unmet goals; and 

23 ‘‘(H) describing staffing needs at U.S. 

24 Customs and Border Protection, the Food and 

25 Drug Administration, and the Department of 


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1 Agriculture to achieve the goals for ensuring or2 ganic integrity described in the report. 

3 ‘‘(2) REPORT ON ENFORCEMENT ACTIONS

4 TAKEN ON ORGANIC IMPORTS.—A report— 

5 ‘‘(A) providing detailed quantitative data 

6 (broken down by commodity type, quantity, 

7 value, month, and origin) on imports of agricul8 tural products represented as organically pro9 duced found to be fraudulent or lacking any 

10 documentation required under this title at the 

11 port of entry during the report year; 

12 ‘‘(B) providing data on domestic enforce13 ment actions taken on imported agricultural 

14 products represented as organically produced, 

15 including— 

16 ‘‘(i) the number and type of actions 

17 taken by United States officials at ports of 

18 entry in response to violations of this title; 

19 and 

20 ‘‘(ii) the total quantity and value of 

21 the agricultural products that were the 

22 subject of the actions, broken down by 

23 product variety and country of origin; 

24 ‘‘(C) providing data on fumigation of agri25 cultural products represented as organically 


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1 produced at ports of entry and notifications of 

2 fumigation actions to shipment owners, broken 

3 down by product variety and country of origin; 

4 and 

5 ‘‘(D) providing information on enforcement 

6 activities under this title involving overseas in7 vestigations and compliance actions taken with8 in that year, including— 

9 ‘‘(i) the number of investigations by 

10 country; and 

11 ‘‘(ii) a descriptive summary of compli12 ance actions taken by certifying agents in 

13 each country.’’. 

14 SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

15 Section 2123 of the Organic Foods Production Act 

16 of 1990 (7 U.S.C. 6522) is amended— 

17 (1) by striking the section heading and insert18 ing ‘‘FUNDING’’; 

19 (2) in subsection (b), by striking paragraphs 

20 (1) through (7) and inserting the following: 

21 ‘‘(1) $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2018; 

22 ‘‘(2) $16,500,000 for fiscal year 2019; 

23 ‘‘(3) $18,000,000 for fiscal year 2020; 

24 ‘‘(4) $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2021; 

25 ‘‘(5) $22,000,000 for fiscal year 2022; and 


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1 ‘‘(6) $24,000,000 for fiscal year 2023.’’; and 

2 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

3 ‘‘(d) MODERNIZATION OF TRADE TRACKING AND

4 DATA COLLECTION SYSTEMS.— 

5 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Of the funds of the Com6 modity Credit Corporation, the Secretary shall use 

7 to carry out section 2106(b)(4) $5,000,000 for fiscal 

8 year 2019, to remain available until expended. 

9 ‘‘(2) ADDITIONAL AMOUNT.—The amount made 

10 available under paragraph (1) shall be in addition to 

11 any other amounts made available to carry out sec12 tion 2106(b)(4).’’. 

Æ 


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