RELIEF Act
Latest action · Jul 17, 2012 Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 439.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedOct 14, 2011
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Retailers and Entertainers Lacey Implementation and Enforcement Fairness Act or the RELIEF Act - (Sec. 3) Amends the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to: (1) make such Act inapplicable to any plant that was imported into the United States before May 22, 2008, or any finished plant or plant product the assembly and processing of which was completed before such date; (2) limit the application of plant importation declaration requirements to plants that are entered for consumption; and (3) exclude from declaration requirements a plant product that is derived from a tree unless the product is solid wood (requires the Administrator of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to issue regulations that define the term "solid wood" for such purpose).
Provides that: (1) civil forfeiture provisions that prohibit any person from asserting an ownership interest in contraband or other property that it is illegal to possess, or that prohibit the federal government from being required to return contraband or other property that the person from whom the property was seized may not legally possess, shall not apply to plants or plant products; and (2) civil forfeiture provisions of such Act are the sole authority for civil seizure or forfeiture actions alleging, or predicated upon, a violation of such Act.
(Sec. 4) Prohibits any person from importing, exporting, transporting, selling, receiving, acquiring, or purchasing in interstate or foreign commerce, or any person within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States from possessing, a plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold: (1) without the payment of appropriate royalties, taxes, or stumpage fees required for the plant by any law or regulation of any state or any foreign law that is directed at the protection, conservation, and management of plants; and (2) in violation of any limitation under any law or regulation of any state, or under foreign law, governing the export or transshipment of plants and that is directed at the protection, conservation, and management of plants
Limits the application of a civil penalty under such Act for violations of foreign laws to violations of foreign laws that are directed at the protection, conservation, and management of plants.
Requires the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Commerce, as program responsibilities are vested pursuant to the provisions of Reorganization Plan Numbered 4 of 1970, to review the implementation of plant declarations with 180 days. Requires the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (currently, the Secretary of Commerce) to report on plant declaration requirements, including an evaluation of the feasibility of creating a publicly available database of laws of foreign countries from which plants are exported.
Cosponsors 21
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Oct 14, 2011 to Mar 19, 2012; 2 are original cosponsors, there from the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-TN | Marsha Blackburn | Original | Oct 14, 2011 |
| R-CA | Mary Bono | Original | Oct 14, 2011 |
| R-TN | David P. Roe | Nov 3, 2011 | |
| R-NY | Michael G. Grimm | Nov 3, 2011 | |
| R-TX | Kenny Marchant | Nov 4, 2011 | |
| R-TX | Ron Paul | Nov 4, 2011 | |
| R-TN | Scott DesJarlais | Nov 4, 2011 | |
| R-CA | Dana Rohrabacher | Nov 15, 2011 | |
| R-NC | Howard Coble | Nov 15, 2011 | |
| R-NC | Renee L. Ellmers | Nov 15, 2011 | |
| R-AK | Don Young | Nov 16, 2011 | |
| R-IL | Donald A. Manzullo | Nov 16, 2011 | |
| R-CA | Duncan Hunter | Nov 16, 2011 | |
| R-MN | Erik Paulsen | Nov 16, 2011 | |
| R-CA | Tom McClintock | Nov 18, 2011 | |
| R-GA | Jack Kingston | Dec 1, 2011 | |
| D-MD | C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger | Dec 7, 2011 | |
| D-OH | Tim Ryan | Dec 13, 2011 | |
| R-FL | Bill Posey | Jan 18, 2012 | |
| D-UT | Jim Matheson | Feb 15, 2012 | |
| R-MI | Thaddeus G. McCotter | Mar 19, 2012 |
Committees 1
Where it was sent and what each committee and subcommittee did with it, in order.
| Chamber | Committee | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| House | Natural Resources Committee | Referred Oct 14, 2011Markup Jun 7, 2012Reported Jul 17, 2012 |
| Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans, and Insular Affairs Subcommittee | Referred Oct 18, 2011Hearings May 8, 2012Discharged Jun 7, 2012 |
Actions 9
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jul 17, 2012Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Natural Resources. H. Rept. 112-604.
- Jul 17, 2012Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 439.
- Jun 7, 2012Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans, and Insular Affairs Discharged.
- Jun 7, 2012Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
- Jun 7, 2012Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 25 - 19.
Research
What has been written about this bill: committee reports, cost estimates, the sponsor’s authority statement, printed hearings and the Congressional Research Service’s work.
Committee report
Congressional Budget Office cost estimate
- Jul 5, 2012H.R. 3210, RELIEF ActAs ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources on June 7, 2012
Constitutional authority
The sponsor’s statement, as printed in the page H6977.
Printed hearings 2
Hearings whose printed record names this bill, newest first: hearings on it, and wider hearings where it came up.
| Number | Hearing | Committee | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Serial No. 112-161 | CONTINUING OVERSIGHT OF REGULATORY IMPEDIMENTS TO JOB CREATION: JOB CREATORS STILL BURIED BY RED TAPE256 pages | Oversight and Government Reform Committee | Jul 19, 2012 |
| Serial No. 112-109 | H.R. 3210, ``RETAILERS AND ENTERTAINERS LACEY IMPLEMENTATION AND ENFORCEMENT FAIRNESS ACT'' AND H.R. 4171, ``FREEDOM FROM OVER-CRIMINALIZATION AND UNJUST SEIZURES ACT OF 2012''88 pages | Natural Resources Committee | May 8, 2012 |
CRS reports 1
Congressional Research Service work that CRS links to this bill or the law it became, newest first.
Cite it 1
Products on other subjects that cite it, usually among other measures.
| Product | Title | Kind | Published |
|---|---|---|---|
| R42119 | The Lacey Act: Compliance Issues Related to Importing Plants and Plant Products Archived | Report | Feb 25, 2014 |
Titles 5
Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.
- Official Title as Introduced
- To amend the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to limit the application of that Act with respect to plants and plant products that were imported before the effective date of amendments to that Act enacted in 2008, and for other purposes.
- Short Titles as Introduced
- Retailers and Entertainers Lacey Implementation and Enforcement Fairness Act
- RELIEF Act
- Short Titles as Reported to House
- RELIEF Act
- Retailers and Entertainers Lacey Implementation and Enforcement Fairness Act
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Environmental Protection.
- Administrative law and regulatory procedures
- Competitiveness, trade promotion, trade deficits
- Department of Agriculture
- Department of the Interior
- Endangered and threatened species
- Environmental Protection
- Government information and archives
- Government studies and investigations
- Horticulture and plants
- Music
- Trade restrictions
Text 2
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jul 17, 2012Reported in House
- Oct 14, 2011Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.