Federal Seed Act Amendments of 1982
Public Law 97-439 · H.R. 7005 · 97th Congress · began in the House
Signed by Ronald Reagan (R) on Jan 8, 1983 · Agriculture and Food
Sponsor: Rep. Victor Fazio (D-CA-4)
Cosponsors (1): Rep. Beryl Anthony
Passage votes
- HouseVoice vote
- SenateVoice vote
Data notes
The final version of the law, as each chamber passed it. A chamber that passed it by voice vote or unanimous consent has no count. “Method not stated” means the record does not say how the chamber voted. Where the record has a member-by-member vote, the “Who voted for it” section shows who voted yea.
Summary
The Congressional Research Service’s plain-language summary of what the law does.
Federal Seed Act Amendments of 1982 - Amends the Federal Seed Act to eliminate "fine" and "coarse" lawn and turf seed labeling requirements for 50 pound or smaller containers. Requires such mixtures to be labeled as a mixture, with each seed component listed in order of predominance.
Requires that only the month and year of the oldest germination test be shown for such mixtures.
Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to extend the five month period between test and shipment dates if the seed will keep its germination qualities over a longer period of time.
Eliminates import requirements respecting pure-live seed and weed contamination testing.
Committees
The committees the bill was sent to, and what each did with it.
Agriculture Committee · House · markup by, referred to, reported bySubcommittee: Department Operations, Research, and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee
Data notes
A committee links to its page only where it exists in the current Congress; older and renamed committees are named without a link.
Timeline
From introduction to signing, newest first: the committees, the floor and the president. 14 actions.
- Jan 8, 1983Became lawBecame law · Became Public Law No: 97-439.
- Became lawBecame law · Signed by President.
- Jan 3, 1983PresidentPresident · Presented to President.
- Dec 21, 1982FloorFloor · Passed Senate without amendment by Voice Vote.
- CommitteeCommittee · Discharged from Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee
- Sep 28, 1982FloorFloor · Passed House (Amended) by Voice Vote.
- CommitteeCommittee · Referred to Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee
- Sep 26, 1982CommitteeCommittee · Reported by House Agriculture Committee
- Sep 23, 1982CommitteeCommittee · Markup by House Agriculture Committee
- Sep 21, 1982CommitteeCommittee · Reported by Department Operations, Research, and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee
- CommitteeCommittee · Markup by Department Operations, Research, and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee
- Aug 26, 1982CommitteeCommittee · Referred to Department Operations, Research, and Foreign Agriculture Subcommittee of the House Agriculture Committee
- Aug 18, 1982CommitteeCommittee · Referred to House Agriculture Committee
- IntroducedIntroduced · Introduced in the House
Data notes
Shows the introduction, each committee and subcommittee step the source dates (referral, hearings, markup, report, discharge), and the floor, conference, presidential and became-law steps. Calendar placements, messages between the chambers, amendments and committee report numbers are not shown for laws before the 108th Congress. Two entries the source lists twice are shown once.
Official record
The bill’s full text and every action, including introduction and committee steps, are on Congress.gov. Data through Oct 7, 2026.