Feral Swine Eradication Act

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3984 To amend the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 to reauthorize the feral swine eradication and control pilot program, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JUNE 9, 2023 Mr. MOORE of Alabama (for himself and Ms. CROCKETT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture A BILL To amend the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 to reau- thorize the feral swine eradication and control pilot pro- gram, 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 ‘‘Feral Swine Eradi- 4 cation Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FERAL SWINE ERADICATION AND CONTROL PRO- 6 GRAM. 7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 2408 of the Agriculture 8 Improvement Act of 2018 (7 U.S.C. 8351 note; Public 9 Law 115–334) is amended— 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:45 Jul 08, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3984.IH H3984 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 3984 IH (1) in the section heading, by striking 1 ‘‘PILOT’’; 2 (2) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘pilot pro- 3 gram’’ and inserting ‘‘program (referred to in this 4 section as the ‘program’)’’; 5 (3) in subsection (b)— 6 (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 7 by striking ‘‘pilot’’; 8 (B) in each of paragraphs (1) and (2), by 9 striking ‘‘the pilot areas’’ and inserting ‘‘eligible 10 areas’’; 11 (C) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘pilot’’ 12 and inserting ‘‘eligible’’; 13 (D) by redesignating paragraphs (3) and 14 (4) as paragraphs (4) and (5), respectively; and 15 (E) by inserting after paragraph (2) the 16 following: 17 ‘‘(3) after determining that feral swine have 18 been eradicated from an eligible area, require the 19 Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the 20 Natural Resources Conservation Service to continue 21 monitoring such eligible area for the reoccurrence of 22 feral swine for a period of 1 year;’’; 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:45 Jul 08, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3984.IH H3984 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 3984 IH (4) in each of subsections (c), (e), (f), and (g), 1 by striking ‘‘pilot program’’ each place it appears 2 and inserting ‘‘program’’; 3 (5) in subsection (c)— 4 (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 5 by striking ‘‘The Secretary’’ and inserting ‘‘In 6 carrying out subsection (b)(5), the Secretary’’; 7 and 8 (B) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘the pilot 9 areas’’ and inserting ‘‘eligible areas’’; 10 (6) by amending subsection (e) to read as fol- 11 lows: 12 ‘‘(e) ELIGIBLE AREAS.— 13 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall carry 14 out the program in eligible areas. 15 ‘‘(2) ELIGIBLE AREA DEFINED.—In this sec- 16 tion, the term ‘eligible area’ means an area of a 17 State in which feral swine have been identified as a 18 threat to agriculture, native ecosystems, or human 19 or animal health, as determined by the Secretary.’’; 20 (7) in subsection (g)— 21 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘2019 22 through 2023’’ and inserting ‘‘2024 through 23 2028’’; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:45 Jul 08, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3984.IH H3984 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 3984 IH (B) in paragraph (2)(A), by striking ‘‘50 1 percent’’ and inserting ‘‘40 percent’’; and 2 (C) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking ‘‘50 3 percent’’ and inserting ‘‘60 percent’’; and 4 (8) by adding at the end the following: 5 ‘‘(h) REPORT.— 6 ‘‘(1) DATA COMPILATION.—Not later than 2 7 years after the date of enactment of this subsection, 8 the Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health 9 Inspection Service and the Chief of the Natural Re- 10 sources Conservation Service, acting jointly shall 11 compile the necessary information to submit a report 12 under paragraph (2). 13 ‘‘(2) REPORT.—Not later than 4.5 years after 14 the date of enactment of this subsection, the Admin- 15 istrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection 16 Service and the Chief of the Natural Resources Con- 17 servation Service, acting jointly, shall submit to the 18 Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry 19 of the Senate and the Committee on Agriculture of 20 the House of Representatives and make publicly 21 available on the website of the Department of Agri- 22 culture a report that— 23 ‘‘(A) describes, for the period beginning on 24 the date of the establishment of the program 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:45 Jul 08, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3984.IH H3984 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 3984 IH and ending on the date of the submission of the 1 report— 2 ‘‘(i) activities carried out under the 3 program, including— 4 ‘‘(I) the number of counties in 5 which feral swine are no longer 6 present; and 7 ‘‘(II) estimated reductions in ag- 8 riculture and natural resource dam- 9 age, and improvements to human and 10 livestock health and safety, as a result 11 of feral swine removal; 12 ‘‘(ii) the use of funding made avail- 13 able under this section, including the num- 14 ber of counties in each State provided 15 funding; and 16 ‘‘(iii) the roles of the Animal and 17 Plant Health Inspection Service and the 18 Natural Resources Conservation Service 19 and agricultural producers provided finan- 20 cial assistance under this section in car- 21 rying out activities under the program; and 22 ‘‘(B) includes— 23 ‘‘(i) a determination by the Adminis- 24 trator of the Animal and Plant Health In- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:45 Jul 08, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H3984.IH H3984 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 3984 IH spection Service and the Chief of the Nat- 1 ural Resources Conservation Service as to 2 the extent to which the program has been 3 successful; and 4 ‘‘(ii) any recommendations for im- 5 provements to the program.’’. 6 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of con- 7 tents for the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Public 8 Law 115–334; 132 Stat. 4491) is amended by striking 9 the item relating to section 2408 and inserting the fol- 10 lowing: 11 ‘‘Sec. 2408. Feral swine eradication and control program.’’. Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:45 Jul 08, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H3984.IH H3984 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS