[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3644 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
110th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 3644
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to provide crop disaster
assistance to agricultural producers that suffered qualifying quantity
or quality losses for the 2008 crop year due to a natural disaster.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 27 (legislative day, September 17), 2008
Ms. Landrieu (for herself, Mrs. Hutchison, Mrs. Lincoln, Mr. Pryor, Mr.
Wicker, and Mr. Cochran) introduced the following bill; which was read
twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and
Forestry
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to provide crop disaster
assistance to agricultural producers that suffered qualifying quantity
or quality losses for the 2008 crop year due to a natural disaster.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Farm Relief Act of 2008''.
SEC. 2. 2008 CROP DISASTER ASSISTANCE.
Section 9001 of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina
Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 (Public Law
110-28; 121 Stat. 211) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) by striking ``There are hereby'' and inserting
the following:
``(1) In general.--There are hereby''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following:
``(2) 2008 crop disaster assistance.--
``(A) In general.--There are hereby appropriated to
the Secretary such sums as are necessary, to remain
available until expended, to make emergency financial
assistance under this section available to producers on
a farm that incurred qualifying quantity or quality
losses for the 2008 crop due a natural disaster or any
related condition, as determined by the Secretary.
``(B) Sugar and sugarcane disaster assistance.--
``(i) Florida.--There are hereby
appropriated to the Secretary such sums as are
necessary, to remain available until expended,
to make payments to processors in Florida that
are eligible to obtain a loan under section
156(a) of the Federal Agriculture Improvement
and Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7272(a)) to
compensate first processors and producers for
crop and other losses due a natural disaster or
any related condition, as determined by the
Secretary, in Florida during calendar year
2008, by an agreement on the same terms and
conditions, to the maximum extent practicable,
as the payments made under section 102 of the
Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for
Hurricane Disasters Assistance Act of 2005
(Public Law 108-324; 118 Stat. 1235), including
that the 2008 base production of each
harvesting unit shall be determined using the
same base year crop production history that was
used pursuant to the agreement under that
section.
``(ii) Louisiana.--
``(I) Compensation for losses.--
There are hereby appropriated to the
Secretary such sums as are necessary,
to remain available until expended, to
make assistance available to first
processors of sugarcane that operate in
a county affected by a natural
disaster, or obtain sugarcane from a
county affected by a natural disaster,
in Louisiana and that are eligible to
obtain a loan under section 156(a) of
the Federal Agriculture Improvement and
Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7272(a)),
in the form of monetary payments or
commodities in the inventory of the
Commodity Credit Corporation derived
from carrying out that section, to
compensate producers and first
processors for crop and other losses
due to the natural disaster or any
related condition, as determined by the
Secretary.
``(II) Administration.--Assistance
under this clause shall be--
``(aa) shared by an
affected first processor with
affected producers that provide
commodities to the processor in
a manner that reflects
contracts entered into between
the processor and the
producers, except with respect
to a portion of the amount of
total assistance provided under
subclause (I) necessary to
compensate affected producers
for individual losses
experienced by the producers,
including losses due to
saltwater intrusion, flooding,
wind damage, or increased
planting, replanting, or
harvesting costs, which shall
be transferred by the first
processor to the affected
producers without regard to
contractual share arrangements;
and
``(bb) made available under
such terms and conditions as
the Secretary determines are
necessary to carry out this
clause.
``(III) Form of assistance.--In
carrying out this clause, the Secretary
shall--
``(aa) convey to the first
processor commodities in the
inventory of the Commodity
Credit Corporation derived from
carrying out section 156(a) of
the Federal Agriculture
Improvement and Reform Act of
1996 (7 U.S.C. 7272(a));
``(bb) make monetary
payments to the first
processor; or
``(cc) take any combination
of actions described in items
(aa) and (bb), using
commodities or monetary
payments.
``(IV) Loss determination.--In
carrying out this clause, the Secretary
shall use the same base year to
determine crop loss that was elected by
a producer to determine crop loss in
carrying out the hurricane assistance
program under section 207 of the
Agricultural Assistance Act of 2003
(Public Law 108-7; 117 Stat. 543).
``(iii) Texas.--There are hereby
appropriated to the Secretary such sums as are
necessary, to remain available until expended,
to assist sugarcane growers in Texas by making
a payment in that amount to a farmer-owned
cooperative sugarcane processor in that State,
for costs of demurrage, storage, and
transportation resulting from natural disaster
or any related condition during calendar year
2008.
``(C) Relation to supplemental agricultural
disaster assistance program.--A producer on a farm that
accepts assistance made available under this paragraph
for a crop loss is not eligible to receive supplemental
agricultural disaster assistance for that crop loss
under subtitle B of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7
U.S.C. 1531) or title IX of the Trade Act of 1974 (19
U.S.C. 2497 et seq.).''; and
(2) in subsection (b), by striking ``this section'' each
place it appears and inserting ``subsection (a)(1)''.
SEC. 3. AQUACULTURE GRANTS.
(a) Definition of Eligible Applicant.--In this section, the term
``eligible applicant'' means a producer of animals described in section
10806(a)(1) of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (21
U.S.C. 321d(a)(1)) during the 2008 calendar year.
(b) Aquaculture Grants.--Of the funds of the Commodity Credit
Corporation, the Secretary of Agriculture shall use $50,000,000 to
provide grants to appropriate State departments of agriculture (or
other appropriate State agencies) that agree to provide assistance to
eligible applicants through animal feed providers that agree to make
the assistance available on a pro rata basis to eligible applicants
based on documented feed use by the eligible applicants during the 2008
calendar year to help offset feed costs or economic losses caused by
natural disasters.
(c) Duty of Secretary.--The Secretary shall ensure that--
(1) funds made available under subsection (b) are
apportioned in an equitable manner among the States that
receive funds under this section; and
(2) assistance is made available based only on documented
feed use.
(d) Regulations.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Agriculture may
promulgate such regulations as are necessary to implement this
section.
(2) Procedure.--The promulgation of the regulations and
administration of this section shall be made without regard
to--
(A) the notice and comment provisions of section
553 of title 5, United States Code;
(B) the Statement of Policy of the Secretary of
Agriculture effective July 24, 1971 (36 Fed. Reg.
13804), relating to notices of proposed rulemaking and
public participation in rulemaking; and
(C) chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code
(commonly known as the ``Paperwork Reduction Act'').
(3) Congressional review of agency rulemaking.--In carrying
out this subsection, the Secretary shall use the authority
provided under section 808 of title 5, United States Code.
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