[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 479 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 479

To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to make emergency loans under 
 the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to greenhouse farmers 
               whose energy costs have escalated sharply.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 6, 2001

  Mr. Shows introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                        Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to make emergency loans under 
 the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to greenhouse farmers 
               whose energy costs have escalated sharply.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. EMERGENCY LOANS FOR GREENHOUSE FARMERS WHOSE ENERGY COSTS 
              HAVE ESCALATED SHARPLY.

    Section 321(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act 
(7 U.S.C. 1961(a)) is amended--
            (1) in the 1st sentence, by inserting ``, or that the 
        applicants' greenhouse farming operations have been 
        substantially affected by an increase in energy prices of at 
        least 25 percent in any 12-month period'' before ``: 
        Provided,'';
            (2) in the 2nd sentence, by inserting ``, or that conduct 
        greenhouse farming operations in any county contiguous to a 
        county where the Secretary has found that greenhouse farming 
        operations have been substantially affected by an increase in 
        energy prices of at least 25 percent in any 12-month period'' 
        before the period;
            (3) in the 3rd sentence--
                    (A) by inserting ``or (in the case of a greenhouse 
                farming operation), by an increase in energy prices,'' 
                after ``a natural disaster''; and
                    (B) by inserting ``, or that greenhouse farming 
                operations have been substantially affected by such 
                increase in energy prices,'' after ``by such natural 
                disaster''; and
            (4) by adding at the end the following: ``In this 
        subsection, the term `greenhouse farming' means the production 
        of an agricultural commodity in a greenhouse for a commercial 
        purpose.''.
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