USC Subpart II

USC Subpart II
in effect

7 U.S.C. § 1371 General adjustment of quotas

(a) Investigation and adjustment to maintain normal supplyIf at any time the Secretary has reason to believe that in the case of cotton,11 So in original. or rice the operation of farm marketing quotas in effect will cause the amount of such commodity which is free of marketing restrictions to be less than the normal supply for the marketing year for the commodity then current, he shall cause an immediate investigation to be made with respect thereto. In the course of such investigation due notice and opportunity for hearing shall be given to interested persons. If upon the basis of such investigation the Secretary finds the existence of such fact, he shall proclaim the same forthwith. He shall also in such proclamation specify such increase in, or termination of, existing quotas as he finds, on the basis of such investigation, is necessary to make the amount of such commodity which is free of marketing restrictions equal the normal supply. (b) Adjustment because of emergency or export demandIf the Secretary has reason to believe that, because of a national emergency or because of a material increase in export demand, any national marketing quota or acreage allotment for cotton,1 or rice should be increased or terminated, he shall cause an immediate investigation to be made to determine whether the increase or termination is necessary to meet such emergency or increase in export demand. If, on the basis of such investigation, the Secretary finds that such increase or termination is necessary, he shall immediately proclaim such finding (and if he finds an increase is necessary, the amount of the increase found by him to be necessary) and thereupon such quota or allotment shall be increased, or shall terminate, as the case may be. (c) Increase of farm quota on increase of national quotaIn case any national marketing quota or acreage allotment for any commodity is increased under this section, each farm marketing quota or acreage allotment for the commodity shall be increased in the same ratio.

7 U.S.C. § 1372 Payment, collection, and refund of penalties

(a) The penalty with respect to the marketing, by sale, of wheat, cotton, or rice, if the sale is to any person within the United States, shall be collected by the buyer. (b) All penalties provided for in part B of this subchapter shall be collected and paid in such manner, at such times, and under such conditions as the Secretary may by regulations prescribe. Such penalties shall be remitted to the Secretary by the person liable for the penalty, except that if any other person is liable for the collection of the penalty, such other person shall remit the penalty. Except as provided in section 1314h 11 See References in Text note below. of this title, the amount of such penalties shall be covered into the general fund of the Treasury of the United States. (c) Whenever, pursuant to a claim filed with the Secretary within two years after payment to him of any penalty collected from any person pursuant to this chapter, the Secretary finds that such penalty was erroneously, illegally, or wrongfully collected and the claimant bore the burden of the payment of such penalty, the Secretary shall certify to the Secretary of the Treasury for payment to the claimant, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, such amount as the Secretary finds the claimant is entitled to receive as a refund of such penalty.Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary is authorized to prescribe by regulations for the identification of farms and it shall be sufficient to schedule receipts into special deposit accounts or to schedule such receipts for transfer therefrom, or directly, into the separate fund provided for in subsection (b) by means of such identification without reference to the names of the producers on such farms. The Secretary is authorized to prescribe regulations governing the filing of such claims and the determination of such refunds. (d) No penalty shall be collected under this chapter with respect to the marketing of any agricultural commodity grown for experimental purposes only by any publicly owned agricultural experiment station. Effective with the 1978 crops, no penalty shall be collected under this chapter with respect to the marketing of any agricultural commodity grown on State prison farms for consumption within such State prison system.

7 U.S.C. § 1373 Reports and records

(a) Persons reportingThis subsection shall apply to warehousemen, processors, and common carriers of corn, wheat, cotton, or rice, and 11 So in original. The word “and” probably should not appear. all ginners of cotton,22 So in original. The word “and” probably should appear. all persons engaged in the business of purchasing corn, wheat, cotton, or rice from producers. Any such person shall, from time to time on request of the Secretary, report to the Secretary such information and keep such rec­ords as the Secretary finds to be necessary to enable him to carry out the provisions of this subchapter. Such information shall be reported and such records shall be kept in accordance with forms which the Secretary shall prescribe. For the purpose of ascertaining the correctness of any report made or record kept, or of obtaining information required to be furnished in any report, but not so furnished, the Secretary is authorized to examine such books, papers, rec­ords, accounts, correspondence, contracts, documents, and memoranda as he has reason to believe are relevant and are within the control of such person. Any such person failing to make any report or keep any record as required by this subsection or making any false report or record shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be subject to a fine of not more than $500. (b) Proof of acreage yieldFarmers engaged in the production of corn, wheat, cotton, or rice for market shall furnish such proof of their acreage, yield, storage, and marketing of the commodity in the form of records, marketing cards, reports, storage under seal, or otherwise as the Secretary may prescribe as necessary for the administration of this subchapter. (c) Data as confidentialAll data reported to or acquired by the Secretary pursuant to this section shall be kept confidential by all officers and employees of the Department, and only such data so reported or acquired as the Secretary deems relevant shall be disclosed by them, and then only in a suit or administrative hearing under this subchapter. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prohibit the issuance of general statements based upon the reports of a number of parties which statements do not identify the information furnished by any person.

7 U.S.C. § 1374 Measurement of farms and report of plantings; remeasurement

(a) The Secretary shall provide for ascertaining, by measurement or otherwise, the acreage of any agricultural commodity or land use on farms for which the ascertainment of such acreage is necessary to determine compliance under any program administered by the Secretary. Insofar as practicable, the acreage of the commodity and land use shall be ascertained prior to harvest, and, if any acreage so ascertained is not in compliance with the requirements of the program the Secretary, under such terms and conditions as he prescribes, may provide a reasonable time for the adjustment of the acreage of the commodity or land use to the requirements of the program. Where cotton is planted in skiprow patterns, the same rules that were in effect for the 1971 through 1973 crops for classifying the acreage planted to cotton and the area skipped shall also apply to the 1974 through 1995 crops, except that, for the 1991 through 1995 crops, the rules shall allow 30 inch rows (or, at the option of those cotton producers who had an established practice of using 32 inch rows before the 1991 crop, 32 inch rows) to be taken into account for classifying the acreage planted to cotton and the area skipped. For the 1992 through 1995 crops, the rules establishing the requirements for eligibility for conserving use for payment acres shall be the same rules as were in effect for 1991 crops. (b) With respect to cotton, the Secretary, upon such terms and conditions as he may by regulation prescribe, shall provide, through the county and local committees for the measurement prior to planting of an acreage on the farm equal to the farm acreage allotment if so requested by the farm operator, and any farm on which the acreage planted to cotton does not exceed such measured acreage shall be deemed to be in compliance with the farm acreage allotment. (c) The Secretary shall by appropriate regulations provide for the remeasurement upon request by the farm operator of the acreage planted to such commodity on the farm and for the measurement of the acreage planted to such commodity on the farm remaining after any adjustment of excess acreage hereunder and shall prescribe the conditions under which the farm operator shall be required to pay the county committee for the expense of the measurement of adjusted acreage or the expense of remeasurement after the initial measurement or the measurement of adjusted acreage. The regulations shall also provide for the refund of any deposit or payment made for the expense of the remeasurement of the initially determined acreage or the adjusted acreage when because of an error in the determination of such acreage the remeasurement brings the acreage within the allotment or permitted acreage or results in a change in acreage in excess of a reasonable variation normal to measurements of acreage of the commodity. Unless the requirements for measurement of adjusted acreage are met by the farm operator, the acreage prior to such adjustment as determined by the county committee shall be considered the acreage of the commodity on the farm in determining whether the applicable farm allotment has been exceeded.

7 U.S.C. § 1375 Regulations

(a) The Secretary shall provide by regulations for the identification, wherever necessary, of corn, wheat, cotton, rice, or peanuts so as to afford aid in discovering and identifying such amounts of the commodities as are subject to and such amounts thereof as are not subject to marketing restrictions in effect under this subchapter. (b) The Secretary shall prescribe such regulations as are necessary for the enforcement of this subchapter.

7 U.S.C. § 1376 Court jurisdiction; duties of United States attorneys; remedies and penalties as additional

The several district courts of the United States are vested with jurisdiction specifically to enforce the provisions of this subchapter. If and when the Secretary shall so request, it shall be the duty of the several United States attorneys in their respective districts, under the direction of the Attorney General, to institute proceedings to collect the penalties provided in this subchapter. The remedies and penalties provided for herein shall be in addition to, and not exclusive of, any of the remedies or penalties under existing law. This section also shall be applicable to liquidated damages provided for pursuant to section 1349 of this title.

7 U.S.C. § 1377 Preservation of unused acreage allotments

In any case in which, during any year beginning with 1956, the acreage planted to a commodity on any farm is less than the acreage allotment for such farm, the entire acreage allotment for such farm (excluding any allotment released from the farm or reapportioned to the farm and any allotment provided for the farm pursuant to subsection (f)(7)(A) of section 1344 of this title) shall, except as provided herein, be considered for the purpose of establishing future State, county and farm acreage allotments, to have been planted to such commodity in such year on such farm, but the 1956 acreage allotment of any commodity shall be regarded as planted under this section only if the owner or operator on such farm notified the county committee prior to the sixtieth day preceding the beginning of the marketing year for such commodity of his desire to preserve such allotment: Provided, That beginning with the 1960 crop, except for federally owned land, the current farm acreage allotment established for a commodity shall not be preserved as history acreage pursuant to the provisions of this section unless for the current year or either of the two preceding years an acreage equal to 75 per centum or more of the farm acreage allotment for such year or, in the case of upland cotton on a farm which qualified for price support on the crop produced in any such year under section 1444(b) of this title, 75 per centum of the farm domestic allotment established under section 1350 of this title for any such year, whichever is smaller was actually planted or devoted to the commodity on the farm (or was regarded as planted under provisions of the Soil Bank Act or the environmental quality incentives program established under subchapter A of chapter 4 of subtitle D of title XII of the Food Security Act of 1985 [16 U.S.C. 3839aa et seq.]): Provided further, That this section shall not be applicable in any case, within the period 1956 to 1959, in which the amount of the commodity required to be stored to postpone or avoid payment of penalty has been reduced because the allotment was not fully planted. Acreage history credits for released or reapportioned acreage shall be governed by the applicable provisions of this subchapter pertaining to the release and reapportionment of acreage allotments.

7 U.S.C. § 1378 Transfer of acreage allotments ensuing from agency acquisition of farmlands

(a) Allotment poolNotwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the allotment determined for any commodity for any land from which the owner is displaced because of acquisition of the land for any purpose, other than for the continued production of allotted crops, by any Federal, State, or other agency having the right of eminent domain shall be placed in an allotment pool and shall be available only for use in providing allotments for other farms owned by the owner so displaced. Upon application to the county committee, within three years after the date of such displacement, any owner so displaced shall be entitled to have allotments established for other farms owned by him, taking into consideration the land, labor, and equipment available on such other farms for the production of the commodity, crop-rotation practices, and the soil and other physical factors affecting the production of the commodity: Provided, That the acreage used to establish or increase the allotments for such farms shall be transferred from the pool and shall not exceed the allotment most recently established for the farm acquired from the applicant and placed in the pool. During the period of eligibility for the making of allotments under this section for a displaced owner, acreage allotments for the farm from which the owner was so displaced shall be established in accordance with the procedure applicable to other farms, and such allotments shall be considered to have been fully planted. After such allotment is made under this section, the proportionate part, or all, as the case may be, of the past acreage used in establishing the allotment most recently placed in the pool for the farm from which the owner was so displaced shall be transferred to and considered for the purposes of future State, county, and farm acreage allotments to have been planted on the farm to which allotment is made under this section. Except where paragraph (c) 11 So in original. Probably should read “subsection (c)”. requires the transfer of allotment to another portion of the same farm, for the purpose of this section (1) that part of any farm from which the owner is so displaced and that part from which he is not so displaced shall be considered as separate farms; and (2) an owner who voluntarily relinquishes possession of the land subsequent to its acquisition by an agency having the right of eminent domain shall be considered as having been displaced because of such acquisition. The former owner of land acquired as described in this subsection shall not be considered for the purposes hereof to have been displaced from such land during any period for which such land is leased to such former owner: Provided, That the occupancy of the former owner under the lease follows immediately after his occupancy as owner: And provided further, That if a former owner has been displaced prior to April 9, 1960, and no allotment from the land owned by such former owner has been transferred from the allotment pool and such former owner leases the land formerly owned by him prior to two years from April 9, 1960, such allotment shall be retransferred from the pool to such land and the occupancy of such former owner under the lease for the purposes of this subsection shall be deemed to have begun immediately after his displacement as owner. During any year of the 3–year period the allotment from a farm may remain in the allotment pool, the displaced owner may, in accordance with regulations of the Secretary, release for one year at a time any part or all of such farm allotment to the county committee for reapportionment to other farms in the county having allotments for such commodity on the basis of the past acreage of the commodity, land, labor, equipment available for the production of the commodity, crop rotation practices, and soil and other physical facilities affecting the production of the commodity; and the allotment reapportioned shall, for purposes of establishing future farm allotments, not be regarded as planted on the farm to which the allotment was transferred. (b) Circumstances precluding application of provisionsThe provisions of this section shall not be applicable if (1) there is any marketing quota penalty due with respect to the marketing of the commodity from the farm acquired by the Federal, State, or other agency or by the owner of the farm; (2) any of the commodity produced on such farm has not been accounted for as required by the Secretary; or (3) the allotment next established for the farm acquired by the Federal, State, or other agency would have been reduced because of false or improper identification of the commodity produced on or marketed from such farm or due to a false acreage report. (c) Time of displacement determining application of provisionsThis section shall not be applicable, in the case of and 22 So in original. The word “and” probably should not appear. cotton, to any farm from which the owner was displaced prior to 1950, in the case of wheat and corn, to any farm from which the owner was displaced prior to 1954, and in the case of rice, to any farm from which the owner was displaced prior to 1955. In any case where the cropland acquired for nonfarming purposes from an owner by an agency having the right of eminent domain represents less than 15 per centum of the total cropland on the farm, the allotment attributable to that portion of the farm so acquired shall be transferred to that portion of the farm not so acquired.

7 U.S.C. § 1379 Reconstitution of farms

In any case in which the ownership of a tract of land is transferred from a parent farm, the acreage allotments, history acreages, and base acreages for the farm shall be divided between such tract and the parent farm in the same proportion that the cropland acreage in such tract bears to the cropland acreage in the parent farm, except that the Secretary shall provide by regulation the method to be used in determining the division, if any, of the acreage allotments, histories, and bases in any case in which— (1) the tract of land transferred from the parent farm has been or is being transferred to any agency having the right to acquire it by eminent domain; (2) the tract of land transferred from the parent farm is to be used for nonagricultural purposes; (3) the parent farm resulted from a combination of two or more tracts of land and records are available showing the contribution of each tract to the allotments, histories, and bases of the parent farm; (4) the appropriate county committee determines that a division based on cropland proportions would result in allotments and bases not representative of the operations normally carried out on any transferred tract during the base period; (5) the parent farm is divided among heirs in settling an estate; or (6) neither the tract transferred from the parent farm nor the remaining portion of the parent farm receives allotments in excess of allotments for similar farms in the community having allotments of the commodity or commodities involved and such allotments are consistent with good land uses.

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