Title: Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2019
Policy area: Commerce

Summary:
Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2019
This bill modifies and expands the schedule for graduated merger filing fees and requires that such fees be adjusted each year based on the Producer Price Index.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1937 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1937

To promote merger enforcement and protect competition through adjusting 
 premerger filing fees, and increasing antitrust enforcement resources.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 20, 2019

 Ms. Klobuchar (for herself and Mr. Grassley) introduced the following 
    bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the 
                               Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To promote merger enforcement and protect competition through adjusting 
 premerger filing fees, and increasing antitrust enforcement resources.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act 
of 2019''.

SEC. 2. PREMERGER NOTIFICATION FILING FEES.

    Section 605 of Public Law 101-162 (15 U.S.C. 18a note) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1)--
                            (i) by striking ``$45,000'' and inserting 
                        ``$30,000'';
                            (ii) by striking ``$100,000,000'' and 
                        inserting ``$161,500,000'';
                            (iii) by striking ``2004'' and inserting 
                        ``2020''; and
                            (iv) by striking ``2003'' and inserting 
                        ``2019'';
                    (B) in paragraph (2)--
                            (i) by striking ``$125,000'' and inserting 
                        ``$100,000'';
                            (ii) by striking ``$100,000,000'' and 
                        inserting ``$161,500,000'';
                            (iii) by striking ``but less'' and 
                        inserting ``but is less''; and
                            (iv) by striking ``and'' at the end;
                    (C) in paragraph (3)--
                            (i) by striking ``$280,000'' and inserting 
                        ``$250,000''; and
                            (ii) by striking the period at the end and 
                        inserting ``but is less than $1,000,000,000 (as 
                        so adjusted and published);''; and
                    (D) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(4) $400,000 if the aggregate total amount determined 
        under section 7A(a)(2) of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 18a(a)(2)) 
        is not less than $1,000,000,000 (as so adjusted and published) 
        but is less than $2,000,000,000 (as so adjusted and published);
            ``(5) $800,000 if the aggregate total amount determined 
        under section 7A(a)(2) of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 18a(a)(2)) 
        is not less than $2,000,000,000 (as so adjusted and published) 
        but is less than $5,000,000,000 (as so adjusted and published); 
        and
            ``(6) $2,250,000 if the aggregate total amount determined 
        under section 7A(a)(2) of the Clayton Act (15 U.S.C. 18a(a)(2)) 
        is not less than $5,000,000,000 (as so adjusted and 
        published).''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(c)(1) For each fiscal year commencing after September 30, 2020, 
the filing fees in this section shall be increased as of October 1 each 
year by an amount equal to the percentage increase, if any, in the 
Producer Price Index, as determined by the Department of Commerce or 
its successor, for the year then ended over the level so established 
for the year ending September 30, 2019.
    ``(2) As soon as practicable, but not later than January 31 of each 
year, the Federal Trade Commission shall publish the adjusted amounts 
required by this section.
    ``(3) The Federal Trade Commission shall not adjust amounts 
required by this section if the percentage increase described in 
paragraph (1) is less than 1 percent.
    ``(4) An amount adjusted under this section shall be rounded to the 
nearest multiple of $5,000.''.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There is authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 2020--
            (1) $180,606,000 for the Antitrust Division of the 
        Department of Justice; and
            (2) $342,000,000 for the Federal Trade Commission.
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