[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3111 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3111

 To compensate agricultural producers in the State of New Mexico that 
suffered crop losses as a result of use of a herbicide by the Bureau of 
                            Land Management.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 15, 2002

 Mr. Bingaman introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To compensate agricultural producers in the State of New Mexico that 
suffered crop losses as a result of use of a herbicide by the Bureau of 
                            Land Management.

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

SECTION 1. COMPENSATION OF NEW MEXICO PRODUCERS FOR CROP DAMAGE FROM 
              BLM USE OF HERBICIDE.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with 
the Secretary of the Interior, may use such funds of the Commodity 
Credit Corporation as are necessary to compensate agricultural 
producers in the State of New Mexico that suffered crop losses as a 
result of the use of the herbicide tebuthiuron by the Bureau of Land 
Management during the 2002 calendar year.
    (b) Liability.--Nothing in this section constitutes an admission of 
liability by the United States arising from the use of the herbicide 
tebuthiuron by the Bureau of Land Management.
    (c) 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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