PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

The commission can get and copy any papers or records it needs from people or companies that make, import, or sell the item it is investigating. It can call people to testify, take sworn statements, and make people turn over books, papers, or written information in the form it asks for. Members of the commission can sign subpoenas and, when allowed, swear in witnesses and hear testimony. The commission can require witnesses and documents to appear at any hearing in the United States. If someone refuses to follow a subpoena, a federal court can be asked to force them to attend, produce evidence, or be punished for contempt. Courts can also issue mandamus orders to make people follow the commission’s orders. The commission can take depositions at any stage, and those statements must be written and signed by the person giving them. Witnesses are paid the same fees and travel pay as in U.S. courts. The commission can require sworn price statements from importers and U.S. growers or makers. The commission’s lawyers or the U.S. Attorney General represent it in court. Documents about breaches of the commission’s protective orders are treated as the type of information covered by section 552(b)(3) of title 5.

Title 19, §1333

Customs Duties, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Authority to obtain information

For the purposes of carrying out its functions and duties in connection with any investigation authorized by law, the commission or its duly authorized agent or agents (1) shall have access to and the right to copy any document, paper, or record, pertinent to the subject matter under investigation, in the possession of any person, firm, copartnership, corporation, or association engaged in the production, importation, or distribution of any article under investigation, (2) may summon witnesses, take testimony, and administer oaths, (3) may require any person, firm, copartnership, corporation, or association to produce books or papers relating to any matter pertaining to such investigation, and (4) may require any person, firm, copartnership, corporation, or association, to furnish in writing, in such detail and in such form as the commission may prescribe, information in their possession pertaining to such investigation. Any member of the commission may sign subpenas, and members and agents of the commission, when authorized by the commission, may administer oaths and affirmations, examine witnesses, take testimony, and receive evidence.

(b)Witnesses and evidence

Such attendance of witnesses and the production of such documentary evidence may be required from any place in the United States at any designated place of hearing. And in case of disobedience to a subpena the commission may invoke the aid of any district or territorial court of the United States in requiring the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of documentary evidence, and such court within the jurisdiction of which such inquiry is carried on may, in case of contumacy or refusal to obey a subpena issued to any corporation or other person, issue an order requiring such corporation or other person to appear before the commission, or to produce documentary evidence if so ordered or to give evidence touching the matter in question; and any failure to obey such order of the court may be punished by such court as a contempt thereof.

(c)Mandamus

At the request of the commission, any such court shall have jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus commanding compliance with the provisions of this part or any order of the commission made in pursuance thereof.

(d)Depositions

The commission may order testimony to be taken by deposition in any proceeding or investigation pending before the commission at any stage of such proceeding or investigation. Such depositions may be taken before any person designated by the commission and having power to administer oaths. Such testimony shall be reduced to writing by the person taking the deposition, or under his direction, and shall then be subscribed by the deponent. Any person, firm, copartnership, corporation, or association, may be compelled to appear and depose and to produce documentary evidence in the same manner as witnesses may be compelled to appear and testify and produce documentary evidence before the commission, as hereinbefore provided.

(e)Fees and mileage of witnesses

Witnesses summoned before the commission shall be paid the same fees and mileage that are paid witnesses in the courts of the United States, and witnesses whose depositions are taken and the persons taking the same, except employees of the commission, shall severally be entitled to the same fees and mileage as are paid for like services in the courts of the United States.

(f)Statements under oath

The commission is authorized, in order to ascertain any facts required by subdivision (d) of section 1332 of this title to require any importer and any American grower, producer, manufacturer, or seller to file with the commission a statement, under oath, giving his selling prices in the United States of any article imported, grown, produced, fabricated, manipulated, or manufactured by him.

(g)Representation in court proceedings

The Commission shall be represented in all judicial proceedings by attorneys who are employees of the Commission or, at the request of the Commission, by the Attorney General of the United States.

(h)Administrative protective orders

Any correspondence, private letters of reprimand, and other documents and files relating to violations or possible violations of administrative protective orders issued by the Commission in connection with investigations or other proceedings under this subtitle shall be treated as information described in section 552(b)(3) of title 5.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification As originally enacted subsec. (b) contained a reference to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Act

June 25, 1936, substituted “the district court of the United States for the District of Columbia” for “the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia”, and act

June 25, 1948, as amended by act

May 24, 1949, substituted “United States District Court for the District of Columbia” for “district court of the United States for the District of Columbia”. However, the words “United States District Court for the District of Columbia” have been deleted entirely as superfluous in view of section 132(a) of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure, which states that “There shall be in each judicial district a district court which shall be a court of record known as the United States District Court for the district”, and section 88 of Title 28 which states that “the District of Columbia constitutes one judicial district”.

Prior Provisions

Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in act Sept. 8, 1916, ch. 463, § 706, 39 Stat. 797, as amended by act Sept. 21, 1922, ch. 356, title III, § 318(f), 42 Stat. 947. These acts were superseded by section 333 of act June 17, 1930, comprising this section, and section 318(f) of the 1922 act was repealed by section 651(a)(1) of the 1930 act.

Amendments

1990—Subsec. (h). Pub. L. 101–382 added subsec. (h). 1975—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 93–618, § 174(1), substituted “At the request of” for “Upon application of the Attorney General of the United States, at the request of”. Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 93–618, § 174(2), added subsec. (g). 1970—Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 91–452 struck out provisions relating to the immunity from prosecution of any natural person compelled to testify or produce evidence in obedience to the subpoena of the commission. 1958—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 85–686, § 9(a), substituted “For the purposes of carrying out its functions and duties in connection with any investigation authorized by law” for “For the purposes of carrying Part II of this subtitle into effect”, inserted provisions empowering the commission to require any person, firm, copartnership, corporation, or association to furnish in writing, in such detail and in such form as the commission may prescribe, information in their possession pertaining to an investigation. Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 85–686, § 9(b), substituted “pending before the commission” for “pending under Part II of this subtitle”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1970 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 91–452 effective on sixtieth day following Oct. 15, 1970, and not to affect any immunity to which any individual is entitled under this section by reason of any testimony given before sixtieth day following Oct. 15, 1970, see section 260 of Pub. L. 91–452, set out as an

Savings Provision

note under section 6001 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure.

§1333 Testimony and Production of Papers