COMMODITY CREDIT CORPORATION CHARTER ACT1

AN ACT

To provide a Federal Charter for the Commodity Credit Corporation

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act.” (15 U.S.C. 714 note.)

SEC. 2. CREATION AND PURPOSES.-For the purpose of stabilizing, supporting, and protecting farm income and prices, of assisting in the maintenance of balanced and adequate supplies of agricultural commodities, products thereof, foods, feeds, and fibers (hereinafter collectively referred to as "agricultural commodities"), and of facilitating the orderly distribution of agricultural commodities, there is hereby created a body corporate to be known as Commodity Credit Corporation (hereinafter referred to as the "Corporation"), which shall be an agency and instrumentality of the United States, within the Department of Agriculture, subject to the general 2 supervision and direction of the Secretary of Agriculture (hereinafter referred to as the "Secretary"). (15 U.S.C. 714.)

SEC. 3. OFFICES.-The Corporation may establish offices in such place or places as it may deem necessary or desirable in the conduct of its business. (15 U.S.C. 714a.)

SEC. 4. GENERAL POWERS.-The Corporation

(a) Shall have succession in its corporate name. (15 U.S.C. 714b(a).)

(b) May adopt, alter, and use a corporate seal, which shall be judicially noticed. (15 U.S.C. 714b (b).)

(c) May sue and be sued, but no attachment, injunction, garnishment or other similar process, mesne or final, shall be issued against the Corporation or its property. The district courts of the United States, including the district courts of the District of Columbia and of any Territory or possession, shall have exclusive original jurisdiction, without regard to the amount in controversy,3 of all suits brought by or against the Corporation: Provided, That the Corporation may intervene in any court in any suit, action, or proceeding in which it has an interest. Any suit against the Corporation shall be brought in the District of Columbia, or in the district wherein the plaintiff resides or is engaged in business. No suit by or against the Corporation shall be allowed unless (1) it shall have been brought within six years after the right accrued on which suit is brought, or (2) in the

1 Approved June 29, 1948, 62 Stat. 1070 et seq.

2 Prior to amendment by the Act of June 7, 1949, 63 Stat. 154, the balance of the sentence read, "direction and control of its Board of Directors."

8 This phrase was added by the Act of June 7, 1949, 63 Stat. 154, 156.

event that the person bringing such suit shall have been under legal disability or beyond the seas at the time the right accrued, the suit shall have been brought within three years after the disability shall have ceased or within six years after the right accrued on which suit is brought, whichever period is longer. The defendant in any suit by or against the Corporation may plead, by way of set-off or counterclaim, any cause of action, whether arising out of the same transaction or not, which would otherwise be barred by such limitation if the claim upon which the defendant's cause of action is based had not been barred prior to the date that the plaintiff's cause of action arose: Provided, That the defendant shall not be awarded a judgment on any such set-off or counterclaim for any amount in excess of the amount of the plaintiff's claim established in the suit. All suits against the Corporation shall be tried by the court without a jury. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the Federal Tort Claims Act (Public Law 601, Seventy-ninth Congress) shall be applicable to the Corporation. Any suit by or against the United States as the real party in interest based upon any claim by or against the Corporation shall be subject to the provisions of this subsection (c) to the same extent as though such suit were by or against the Corporation, except that (1) any such suit against the United States based upon any claim of the type enumerated in title 28, section 1491, of the United States Code, may be brought in the United States Court of Claims, and (2) no such suit against the United States may be brought in a district court unless such suit might, without regard to the provisions of this Act, be brought in such court. (15 U.S.C. 714b (c).)

5

(d) May adopt, amend, and repeal bylaws, rules, and regulations governing the manner in which its business may be conducted and the powers vested in it may be exercised. (15 U.S.C. 714b(d).)

(e) Shall have all the rights, privileges, and immunities of the United States with respect to the right to priority of payment with respect to debts due from insolvent, deceased, or bankrupt debtors. The Corporation may assert such rights, privileges, and immunities in any suit, action, or proceeding. (15 U.S.C. 714b(e).)

(f) Shall be entitled to the use of the United States mails in the same manner and upon the same conditions as the executive departments of the Federal Government. (15 U.S.C. 714b (f).)

(g) May enter into and carry out such contracts or agreements as are necessary in the conduct of its business. State and local regulatory laws or rules shall not be applicable with respect to contracts or agreements of the Corporation or the parties thereto to the extent that such contracts or agreements provide that such laws or rules shall not be applicable, or to the extent that such laws or rules are inconsistent with such contracts or agreements. (15 U.S.C. 714b (g).)

(h) May contract for the use, in accordance with the usual customs of trade and commerce, of plants and facilities for the physical handling, storage, processing, servicing, and transportation of the agricultural

4 This and the preceding sentence were substituted by the Act of June 7, 1949, 63 Stat. 154, 156-7, for the sentence reading "No suit by or against the Corporation shall be allowed unless it shall have been brought within four years after the right accrued on which suit is brought."

The balance of the sentence was added by the Act of June 7, 1949, 63 Stat. 154, 157.

commodities subject to its control. The Corporation shall have power to acquire personal property necessary to the conduct of its business but shall not have power to acquire real property or any interest therein except that it may (a) rent or lease office space necessary for the conduct of its business and (b) acquire real property or any interest therein for the purpose of providing storage adequate to carry out effectively and efficiently any of the Corporation's programs, or of securing or discharging obligations owing to the Corporation, or of otherwise protecting the financial interests of the Corporation: Provided, That the authority contained in this subsection (h) shall not be utilized by the Corporation for the purpose of acquiring real property, or any interest therein, in order to provide storage facilities for any commodity unless the Corporation determines that existing privately owned storage facilities for such commodity in the area concerned are not adequate: Provided further, That no refrigerated cold storage facilities shall be constructed or purchased except with funds specially provided by Congress for that purpose: And provided further, That nothing contained in this subsection (h) shall limit the duty of the Corporation, to the maximum extent practicable consistent with the fulfillment of the Corporation's purposes and the effective and efficient conduct of its business, to utilize the usual and customary channels, facilities, and arrangements of trade and commerce in the warehousing of commodities: And provided further, That to encourage the storage of grain on farms, where it can be stored at the lowest cost, the Corporation shall make loans to grain growers needing storage facilities when such growers shall apply to the Corporation for financing the construction or purchase of suitable storage, and these loans shall be deducted from the proceeds of price support loans or purchase agreements made between the Corporation and the growers. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Commodity Credit Corporation is authorized, upon terms and conditions prescribed or approved by the Secretary of Agriculture, to accept strategic and critical materials produced abroad in exchange for agricultural commodities acquired by the Corporation.s Insofar as practicable, in effecting such exchange of goods, normal commercial trade channels shall be utilized and priority shall be given to commodities easily storable and those which serve as prime incentive goods to stimulate production of critical and strategic materials. The determination of the quantities and qualities of such materials which are desirable for stockpiling and the determination of which materials are strategic and critical shall be made in the manner prescribed by section 2 of the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act (60 Stat. 596). Strategic and critical materials acquired by Commodity Credit Corporation in exchange for agricultural commodities shall, to the extent approved by the Munitions Board of the National Mili

The balance of subsection (h) up to the last proviso was substituted for previous language by the Act of June 7, 1949, 63 Stat. 154.

See section 417 of the Agricultural Act of 1949 relating to loans by the Banks for Cooperatives to cooperative associations to finance construction of structures for storage of agricultural commodities if Commodity Credit Corporation has agreed to lease or guarantee utilization of 75 percent of the storage space.

8 See also section 303 of the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, section 206 of the Agricultural Act of 1956, and section 416 of the Agricultural Act of 1949 relating to barters and exchanges of agricultural commodities owned by Commodity Credit Corporation for strategic and other materials.

9

tary Establishment be transferred to the stock pile provided for by the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act; and when transferred to the stock pile the Commodity Credit Corporation shall be reimbursed for the strategic and critical materials so transferred to the stock pile from the funds made available for the purpose of the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act, in an amount equal to the fair market value, as determined by the Secretary of the Treasury,10 of the material transferred to the stock pile. Nothing contained herein shall limit the authority of the Commodity Credit Corporation to acquire, hold, or dispose of such quantity of strategic and critical materials as it deems advisable in carrying out its functions and protecting its assets: Provided," That, notwithstanding any other provision of law, where a grain storage facility owned by the Corporation is not needed by the Corporation and, upon being offered for sale no person offers to pay the minimum price set by the Corporation for such facility for use in connection with storage or handling of agricultural commodities, then the Corporation may, without declaring such facility to be excess property, sell it by bids at not less than such minimum price to any public or private nonprofit agency or organization for use for the purposes of such agency or organization. This provision shall apply also to facilities which on the effective date of this Act have been declared excess to the needs of the Commodity Credit Corporation but have not been claimed by any other Government agency, or surplus to the needs of the Government but not disposed of pursuant to the provisions of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended. (15 U.S.C. 714b(h).)

(i) May borrow money subject to any provision of law applicable to the Corporation: Provided, That the total of all money borrowed by the Corporation, other than trust deposits and advances received on sales, shall not at any time exceed in the aggregate $14,500,000,000.12 The Corporation shall at all times reserve a sufficient amount of its authorized borrowing power which, together with other funds available to the Corporation, will enable it to purchase, in accordance with its contracts with lending agencies, notes, or other obligations evidencing loans made by such agencies under the Corporation's programs. (15 U.S.C. 714b(i).)

(j) Shall determine the character of and the necessity for its obligations and expenditures and the manner in which they shall be incurred, allowed, and paid. (15 U.S.C. 714b (j).)

(k) Shall have authority to make final and conclusive settlement and adjustment of any claims by or against the Corporation or the accounts of its fiscal officers. (15 U.S.C. 714b (k).)

"National Military Establishment" was succeeded by the Department of Defense by the Act of August 10, 1949, 63 Stat. 578, 591.

10 This function was transferred from the Secretary of the Treasury to the Administrator of General Services, by section 102 (a) of the Act of June 30, 1949, 63 Stat. 377, 380, 40 U.S.C. 752 (a).

This proviso and the last sentence of this section were added by Pub. L. 89-758, 80 Stat. 1307, approved November 5, 1966.

12 Borrowing power increased from $4.750,000,000 to $6,750,000,000 by the Act of June 28, 1950, 64 Stat. 261; to $8,500,000,000 by the Act of March 20, 1954. 68 Stat. 30; to $10,000,000,000 by the Act of August 31, 1954, 68 Stat. 1047; to $12,000,000,000 by the Act of August 11, 1955, 69 Stat. 634; and to $14,500,000,000 by the Act of August 1, 1956, 70 Stat. 783.

(1) May make such loans and advances of its funds as are necessary in the conduct of its business. (15 U.S.C. 714b (1).)

(m) Shall have such powers as may be necessary or appropriate for the exercise of the powers specifically vested in the Corporation, and all such incidental powers as are customary in corporations generally; but any research financed by the Corporation shall relate to the conservation or disposal of commodities owned or controlled by the Corporation and shall be conducted in collaboration with research agencies of the Department of Agriculture. (15 U.S.C. 714b (m).)

SEC. 5. SPECIFIC POWERS.-In the fulfillment of its purposes and in carrying out its annual budget programs submitted to and approved by the Congress pursuant to the Government Corporation Control Act (31 U.S.C. 841-871), the Corporation is authorized to use its general powers only to

(a) Support the prices of agricultural commodities through loans, purchases, payments, and other operations.

(b) Make available materials and facilities required in connection with the production and marketing of agricultural commodities.

(c) Procure agricultural commodities for sale to other Government agencies, foreign governments, and domestic, foreign, or international relief or rehabilitation agencies, and to meet domestic requirements.

(d) Remove and dispose of or aid in the removal or disposition of surplus agricultural commodities.

(e) Increase the domestic consumption of agricultural commodities by expanding or aiding in the expansion of domestic markets or by developing or aiding in the development of new and additional markets, marketing facilities, and uses for such commodities.

(f) Export or cause to be exported, or aid in the development of foreign markets for, agricultural commodities.

(g) Carry out such other operations as the Congress may specifically authorize or provide for.

In the Corporation's purchasing and selling operations with respect to agricultural commodities (except sales to other Government agencies), and in the warehousing, transporting, processing, or handling of agricultural commodities, the Corporation shall, to the maximum extent practicable consistent with the fulfillment of the Corporation's purposes and the effective and efficient conduct of its business, utilize the usual and customary channels, facilities, and arrangements of trade and commerce.18 (15 U.S.C. 714c.)

SEC. 6. EXISTING STATUTES APPLICABLE TO THE CORPORATION.-The Federal statutes applicable to Commodity Credit Corporation, a Delaware corporation, shall be applicable to the Corporation. Commodity Credit Corporation, a Delaware corporation, shall cease to be an agency of the United States as provided in section 7(a) of the Act of January 31, 1935, as amended (15 U.S.C., 1940 edition, Supp. V, 713(a)). (15 U.S.C. 714d.)

13 For similar policy statement with regard to Commodity Credit Corporation's operations, see p. 319, Food and Agriculture Act of 1962, section 402, 7 U.S.C. 713a.