Agriculture and for transfer to such other agencies of the Federal or State Governments, or to local public agencies, as the Secretary may request to cooperate or assist in carrying out this Act, and for payments to committees or associations of producers in any region or regions to cover the estimated administrative expenses to be incurred by any such committee or association in cooperating in carrying out this Act: Provided, That the Secretary may prescribe that all or part of such estimated expenses of any such committee or association may be deducted pro rata from the payments or grants made to the members thereof: Provided further, That the Secretary may make such payments in advance of determination of performance: Provided further, That the transfer of funds for servces of technicians in formulating and carrying out agricultural conservation programs, from allotments for agricultural conservation payments within a State, shall be subject to such limitations and conditions as may be provided in appropriation or other law. Funds so transferred may be placed in a single account for each State. (16 U.S.C. 590k.)

EXPANSION OF MARKETS FOR AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES AND ADVANCING FUNDS TO FEDERAL CROP INSURANCE CORPORATION

SEC. 12. (a) Whenever the Secretary finds that the exercise of the powers conferred in this section will tend to carry out the purpose specified in clause (5) of section 7(a), or will tend to provide for and maintain a continuous and stable supply of agricultural commodities adequate to meet consumer demand at prices fair to both producers and consumers, or both, he shall use such part as he deems necessary of the sums appropriated to carry out this Act for the expansion of domestic and foreign markets or for seeking new or additional markets for agrcultural commodities or the products thereof or for the removal or disposition of surpluses of such commodities or the products thereof. (16 U.S.C. 5907(a).)

any

(b) The Secretary is authorized to make advances to producers for the purpose of assisting them to insure their crops with the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. The Secretary shall remit the amount of such advances to a producer directly to such Corporation in payment of the premium on the insurance for which the producer has made application. Advances shall only be made to producers who are participating or who agree to participate in a program formulated pursuant to section 8. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, the terms and conditions of such advances shall be fixed by the Secretary. In carrying out the provisions of this subsection, the Secretary may transfer to the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, prior to the execution of applications for insurance or requests for advances by producers, the funds estimated as necessary to cover the advances which will be requested for the payment of premiums under a crop-insurance program, and any portion of such funds not used for advances to producers under such program shall be returned to the Secretary by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. (16 U.S.C. 5907(b).) 15

15 See section 391 (c) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, p. 133.

EXECUTION OF POWERS OF SECRETARY BY PRODUCTION AND MARKETING

ADMINISTRATION

SEC. 13. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this Act, the Secretary is authorized and directed to provide for the execution by the Production and Marketing Administration of such powers conferred upon him under sections 7 to 14, inclusive, of this Act as he deems may be appropriately exercised by such Administration, and for such purposes the provisions of law applicable to the appointment and compensation of persons employed by the Production and Marketing Administration shall apply. (16 U.S.C. 590m.)

FINALITY OF DETERMINATIONS

SEC. 14. The facts constituting the bases for any payment or grant or the amount thereof authorized to be made under section 7 or 8 hereof, when officially determined in conformity with rules or regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Agriculture, shall be reviewable only by the Secretary of Agriculture. Payments to claimants under sections 7 to 17, inclusive, of this Act may be made upon the certificate of the claimant, which certificate shall be in such form as the Secretary of Agriculture may prescribe, that he has carried out the conservation practice or practices and has complied with all other requirements as conditions for such payments and that the statements and information contained in the application for payment are correct and true, to the best of his knowledge and belief, under the penalties of title 18, United States Code. (16 U.S.C. 590n.)

APPROPRIATIONS, AUTHORIZATIONS AND ALLOCATIONS OF FUNDS

SEC. 15.18 To enable the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out the purposes of sections 7 and 8 there is hereby authorized to be appropriated for any fiscal year not exceeding $500,000,000.

The funds available for payments (after allowing for estimated administrative expenses, and not to exceed 5 per centum for payments with respect to range lands, noncrop pasture lands, and naval stores) shall be allocated among the commodities produced with respect to which payments or grants are to be computed. In allocating funds among the commodities the Secretary shall take into consideration and give equal weight to (1) the average acreages planted to the various commodities (including rotation pasture), for the ten years 1928 to 1937, adjusted for abnormal weather and other conditions, including acreage diverted from production under the agricultural adjustment

16 Additional provisions relating to the program appear in the annual appropriation act of the Department. For provisions relating to the formulation of the 1969 program, see Department of Agriculture and Related Agencies Appropriation Act, 1969, 82 Stat. 647, p. 352. The Department of Agriculture and Related Agencies Appropriation Act, 1962, 75 Stat. 233, provided with respect to the program 66 hereafter not to exceed 10 per centum of the basic allocation for any State may be used to increase the State's preceding program,

See section 391 of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, p. 133 for provisions authorizing Commodity Credit Corporation each fiscal year to loan to the Secretary "such sums, not to exceed $50,000,000 as he estimates will be required during such fiscal year, to make crop insurance premium advances and to make advances pursuant to the applicable provisions of sections 8 and 12 of the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act, as amended, in connection with programs applicable to crops harvested in the calendar year in which such fiscal year ends, ." This authority is used to borrow funds required during a fiscal year to pay vendors for purchases by farmers of conservation materials and services needed under the program.

and soil conservation programs; (2) the value at parity prices of the production from the allotted acreages of the various commodities for the year with respect to which the payment is made; (3) the average acreage planted to the various commodities during the ten years 1928 to 1937, including the acreage diverted from production under the agricultural adjustment and soil conservation programs, in excess of the allotted acreage for the year with respect to which the payment is made; and (4) the value based on average prices for the preceding ten years of the production of the excess acreage determined under item (3). The rate of payment used in making payments to the producers of each commodity shall be such that the estimated payments with respect to such commodity shall equal the amount of funds allocated to such commodity as herein provided. For the purpose of allocating funds and computing payments or grants the Secretary is authorized to consider as a commodity a group of commodities or a regional or market classification of a commodity. For the purpose of computing payments or grants, the Secretary is authorized to use funds allocated to two or more commodities produced on farms of a designated regional or other classification to compute payments with respect to one of such commodities on such farms, and to use funds, in an amount equal to the estimated payments which would be made in any county, for making payments pursuant to a specal program under section 8 approved by the Secretary for such county: Provided, That farm acreage allotments shall be made for wheat in 1938, but in determining compliance wheat shall be considered in the group with other crops for which special acreage allotments are not made. Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section and the provisions of section 7(g), programs of soil building practices and soil- and water-conserving practices shall be based on a distribution of the funds available for payments and grants among the several States in accordance with their conservation needs, as determined by the Secretary, except that the proportion allocated to any State shall not be reduced by more than 15 per centum from the distribution of such funds for the next preceding program year. In carrying out such programs, the Secretary shall give particular consideration to conservation problems on farm lands diverted from crops under acreage allotment programs and to the maintenance of a proper balance between soil conserving and soil depleting crops on the farm. (16 U.S.C. 5900.)

LIMITATION ON OBLIGATIONS INCURRED

SEC. 16. (a) The obligations incurred for the purpose of carrying out for any calendar year, the provisions of sections 7 to 14, inclusive, of this Act shall not exceed $500,000,000. (16 U.S.C. 590p(a).)

GREAT PLAINS CONSERVATION PROGRAM

(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law

(1) the Secretary is authorized, within the amounts of such appropriations as may be provided therefor, to enter into contracts of not to exceed ten years with producers in the Great Plains area determined by him to have control for the contract period of the farms or ranches covered thereby. Such contracts

shall be designed to assist farm and ranch operators to make, in orderly progression over a period of years, changes in their cropping systems and land uses which are needed to conserve the soil and water resources of their farms and ranches and to install the soil and water conservation measures needed under such changed systems and uses. Such contracts may be entered into during the period ended not later than December 31, 1971, with respect to farms and ranches in counties in the Great Plains area of the States of Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming, designated by the Secretary as susceptible to serious wind erosion by reason of their soil types, terrain, and climatic and other factors.17 The producer shall furnish to the Secretary a plan of farming operations which incorporates such soil and water conservation practices and principles as may be determined by him to be practicable for maximum mitigation of climatic hazards of the area in which the farm is located, and which outlines a schedule of proposed changes in cropping systems and land use and of the conservation measures which are to be carried out in the farm or ranch during the contract period to protect the farm or ranch from erosion and deterioration by natural causes. Under the contract the producer shall agree

(i) to effectuate the plan for his farm or ranch substantially in accordance with the schedule outlined therein unless any requirement thereof is waived or modified by the Secretary pursuant to paragraph (3) of this subsection;

(ii) to forfeit all rights to further payments or grants under the contract and refund to the United States all payments or grants received thereunder upon his violation of the contract at any stage during the time he has control of the farm if the Secretary determines that such violation is of such a nature as to warrant termination of the contract, or to make refunds or accept such payment adjustments as the Secretary may deem appropriate if he determines that the producer's violation does not warrant termination of the contract;

(iii) upon transfer of his right and interest in the farm or ranch during the contract period to forfeit all rights to further payments or grants under the contract and refund to the United States all payments or grants received thereunder unless the transferee of the farm or ranch agrees with the Secretary to assume all obligations of the contract;

(iv) not to adopt any practice specified by the Secretary in the contract as a practice which would tend to defeat the purposes of the contract;

(v) to such additional provisions as the Secretary de

termines are desirable and includes in the contract to effectuate the purposes of the program or to facilitate the practical administration of the program.

17 This sentence was amended by the Agricultural Act of 1961, 75 Stat. 319.

In return for such agreement by the producer the Secretary shall agree to share the cost of carrying out those conservation practices set forth in the contract for which he determines. that cost-sharing is appropriate and in the public interest. The portion of such cost (including labor) to be shared shall be that part which the Secretary determines is necessary and appropriate to effectuate the physical installation of the conservation measures under the contract;

(2) the Secretary may terminate any contract with a producer by mutual agreement with the producer if the Secretary determines that such termination would be in the public interest, and may agree to such modification of contracts previously entered into as he may determine to be desirable to carryout the purposes of the program or facilitate the practical administration thereof; (3) 18 ***

4) 18 ***

(5) in applying the provisions of paragraph (6) of Public Law 74, Seventy-seventh Congress (7 U.S.C. 1340 (6)), relating to the reduction of storage amount of wheat, any acreage diverted from the production of wheat under the program carried out under this subsection shall be regarded as wheat acreage;

(6) the Secretary shall utilize the technical services of agencies of the Department of Agriculture in determining the scope and provisions of any plan and the acceptability of the plan for effectuating the purposes of the program. In addition the Secretary shall take into consideration programs of State and local agencies, including soil conservation districts, having for their purposes the objectives of maximum soil and water conservation;

(7) there is hereby authorized to be appropriated without fiscal year limitations, such sums as may be necessary to carry out this subsection: Provided, That the total cost of the program (excluding administrative costs) shall not exceed $150,000,000, and for any program year payments shall not exceed $25,000,000. The funds made available for the program under this subsection may be expended without regard to the maximum payment limitation and small payment increases required under section 8(e) of this Act, and may be distributed among States without regard to distribution of funds formulas of section 15 of this Act. The program authorized under this subsection shall be in addition to, and not in substitution of, other programs in such area authorized by this or any other Act. (16 U.S.C. 590p (b).)

SEC. 16(c) (Applicable to Feed Grain Program for 1961. 75 Stat. 6, 16 U.S.C. 590p(c). See p. 124 of Agriculture Handbook 242 for text.)

SEC. 16(d) (Applicable to Feed Grain Program for 1962. 75 Stat. 302, 16 U.S.C. 590p (d). See p. 126 of Agriculture Handbook 242 for text.)

18 Subsections (3) and (4) were repealed by Pub. L. 89-321, 79 Stat. 1208, approved November 3, 1965, except that all rights accruing thereunder to persons who entered into contracts or agreements prior to such repeal shall be preserved. For the text of the material repealed, see Pub. L. 86–793, 74 Stat. 1030, approved September 14, 1960.

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