Buy American Agriculture Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2712 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. 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. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Buy American Agri- 4 culture Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES PURCHASED FROM 6 DOMESTICALLY OWNED ENTERPRISES. 7 (a) BUY AMERICA REQUIREMENT.— 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:14 May 28, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2712.IH H2712 tkelley on DSKBCP9HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2712 IH (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para- 1 graph (2), in making purchase of agricultural com- 2 modities and seafood under the Food Purchase and 3 Distribution Program, the Secretary of Agriculture, 4 acting through the Administrator of the Agricultural 5 Marketing Service, may only make such purchases 6 from domestically owned enterprises. 7 (2) EXCEPTION.—Paragraph (1) shall not 8 apply if the Secretary of Agriculture determines that 9 applying such paragraph— 10 (A) would be inconsistent with the public 11 interest; 12 (B) is not possible because agricultural 13 commodities and seafood produced by domesti- 14 cally owned enterprises, as determined by the 15 Secretary of Agriculture, are not produced— 16 (i) in sufficient quantities; or 17 (ii) in a satisfactory quality; or 18 (C) would result in a greater than 25 per- 19 cent increase between— 20 (i) the amount necessary to apply 21 such paragraph in a fiscal year; and 22 (ii) the amount spent by the Agricul- 23 tural Marketing Service in purchasing ag- 24 ricultural commodities and seafood under 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 May 25, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2712.IH H2712 tkelley on DSKBCP9HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2712 IH the Food Purchase and Distribution Pro- 1 gram in the fiscal year prior to such fiscal 2 year. 3 (3) PUBLICATION OF WAIVERS.—If the Sec- 4 retary of Agriculture determines that paragraph (1) 5 should not apply due to a condition specified in sub- 6 paragraphs (A) through (C) of paragraph (2), the 7 Secretary of Agriculture shall publish in the Federal 8 Register a report that includes such determination. 9 (b) PUBLICATION OF AWARDS.—In publishing the 10 awards made to vendors under the purchase programs 11 under the Agricultural Marketing Service, the Secretary 12 of Agriculture shall include the determination of such 13 award and whether the entity receiving such an award is 14 a domestically owned enterprise. 15 (c) APPLICATION OF SECTION.—This section shall be 16 applied in a manner consistent with the United States ob- 17 ligations under international agreements. 18 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 19 (1) AGRICULTURAL COMMODITY.—The term 20 ‘‘agricultural commodity’’ has the meaning given the 21 term under section 102(1) of the Agricultural Trade 22 Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 5602(1)). 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 May 25, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2712.IH H2712 tkelley on DSKBCP9HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2712 IH (2) SEAFOOD.—The term ‘‘seafood’’ means 1 finfish, shellfish, or aquatic plants that are farm- 2 raised or harvested from the wild. 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:45 May 25, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2712.IH H2712 tkelley on DSKBCP9HB2PROD with BILLS