Buy American Agriculture Act

Bill: 116-hr-2712
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. DeLauro, Rosa L. [D-CT-3]
Introduced: 2019-05-14
Policy area: Agriculture and Food
Subjects: Agricultural marketing and promotion

Agricultural prices, subsidies, credit

Agricultural trade

Buy American requirements

Government information and archives

Trade restrictions
Latest action: action_date: 2019-06-07
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research.

Summaries:
action_date: 2019-05-14
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><b>Buy American Agriculture Act</b></p> <p>This bill requires the Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service to purchase agricultural commodities and seafood under the Food Purchase and Distribution Program only from domestically owned enterprises.</p> <p>The bill includes exceptions if applying the requirement</p> <ul> <li> would be inconsistent with the public interest, </li> <li>is not possible because the domestically produced products are not available in sufficient quantities or in a satisfactory quality, or</li> <li>would result in cost increase of more than 25% compared to the previous year. </li> </ul>

tv_txt: I 116th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2712 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 14, 2019 Ms. DeLauro (for herself and Mr. McGovern ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture A BILL To require that purchases of agricultural commodities made by the Secretary of Agriculture under the Food Purchase and Distribution Program be from domestically owned enterprises, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the “ Buy American Agriculture Act ”. 2. Agricultural commodities purchased from domestically owned enterprises (a) Buy America requirement (1) In general Except as provided in paragraph (2), in making purchase of agricultural commodities and seafood under the Food Purchase and Distribution Program, the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Administrator of the Agricultural Marketing Service, may only make such purchases from domestically owned enterprises. (2) Exception Paragraph (1) shall not apply if the Secretary of Agriculture determines that applying such paragraph— (A) would be inconsistent with the public interest; (B) is not possible because agricultural commodities and seafood produced by domestically owned enterprises, as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture, are not produced— (i) in sufficient quantities; or (ii) in a satisfactory quality; or (C) would result in a greater than 25 percent increase between— (i) the amount necessary to apply such paragraph in a fiscal year; and (ii) the amount spent by the Agricultural Marketing Service in purchasing agricultural commodities and seafood under the Food Purchase and Distribution Program in the fiscal year prior to such fiscal year. (3) Publication of waivers If the Secretary of Agriculture determines that paragraph (1) should not apply due to a condition specified in subparagraphs (A) through (C) of paragraph (2), the Secretary of Agriculture shall publish in the Federal Register a report that includes such determination. (b) Publication of awards In publishing the awards made to vendors under the purchase programs under the Agricultural Marketing Service, the Secretary of Agriculture shall include the determination of such award and whether the entity receiving such an award is a domestically owned enterprise. (c) Application of section This section shall be applied in a manner consistent with the United States obligations under international agreements. (d) Definitions In this section: (1) Agricultural commodity The term agricultural commodity has the meaning given the term under section 102(1) of the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 ( 7 U.S.C. 5602(1) ). (2) Seafood The term seafood means finfish, shellfish, or aquatic plants that are farm-raised or harvested from the wild.