[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2703 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2703

  To reserve a small percentage of the amounts made available to the 
 Secretary of Agriculture for the farmland protection program to fund 
 challenge grants to encourage the purchase of conservation easements 
 and other interests in land to be held by a State agency, county, or 
             other eligible entity, and for other purposes.


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                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 10, 2003

  Mr. Gerlach (for himself and Mr. English) introduced the following 
        bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To reserve a small percentage of the amounts made available to the 
 Secretary of Agriculture for the farmland protection program to fund 
 challenge grants to encourage the purchase of conservation easements 
 and other interests in land to be held by a State agency, county, or 
             other eligible entity, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Farmland Protection Program 
Challenge Grant Act of 2003''.

SEC. 2. ADDITIONAL TITLE-HOLDING OPTION UNDER FARMLAND PROTECTION 
              PROGRAM.

    Section 1238I of the Farm Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 3838i) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(d) Option for Title to Be Held by Eligible Entity.--
            ``(1) Reservation of funds; purpose.--Of the funds made 
        available under section 1241(a)(4) for fiscal year 2003 and 
        thereafter to carry out this section, the Secretary shall use 
        not less than 15 percent to make grants to support cooperative 
        efforts by an eligible State agency, a county, and one or more 
        other eligible entities to purchase conservation easements and 
        other interests in eligible land under subsection (a), the 
        title to which will be held by an eligible entity rather than 
        the United States.
            ``(2) Cost sharing.--Notwithstanding subsection (c)(1), the 
        share of the cost of purchasing a conservation easement or 
        other interest in eligible land borne by the United States 
        under this subsection shall not exceed 25 percent. The State 
        agency involved in the purchase shall contribute 25 percent of 
        the purchase price, the county involved in the purchase shall 
        contribute 25 percent of the purchase price, and the other 
        eligible entities involved in the purchase shall contribute 25 
        percent of the purchase price.
            ``(3) Prohibition on use of grant funds.--Federal funds 
        made available under this subsection may not be used by grant 
        recipients for administrative purposes.''.
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