No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section extends the Secretary of Agriculture’s authority to investigate complaints, conduct hearings, issue cease-and-desist orders, and assess civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation against live poultry dealers, applying the same procedures and factors previously limited to packers and swine contractors. It repeals three existing sections of the Packers and Stockyards Act and adjusts the numbering of two others.
This section expands exceptions to confidentiality protections for livestock market information obtained under the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 by authorizing regular and continual disclosure to Department of Agriculture employees enforcing the Packers and Stockyards Act and to Commodity Futures Trading Commission employees enforcing the Commodity Exchange Act for monitoring violations.
This section authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to issue civil investigative demands before initiating proceedings under section 203(a) of the Packers and Stockyards Act. The demands may require any person to produce documentary material, submit tangible things, file written reports or answers, give oral testimony, or provide any combination thereof, when the Secretary has reason to believe the person possesses information relevant to an unlawful practice under section 202.
This section expands the definition of unfair practices under the Packers and Stockyards Act to include collusive, coercive, predatory, or exclusionary methods of competition that may harm competitive conditions, as well as acts causing substantial injury to market participants that they cannot reasonably avoid and that lack outweighing countervailing benefits. It also prohibits seven specific acts by packers, swine contractors, and live poultry dealers, including poultry grower tournaments that reduce compensation or create excessive variability, unreasonably variable pricing terms in livestock contracts, exclusive dealing requirements without access to a competitive livestock exchange, failure to compensate for pickup delays beyond seven days, contract terminations without full reimbursement for required investments, and failure to compensate livestock producers for at least seven years after a processing plant closure for added marketing costs and reduced prices due to lessened competition.