[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5313 Introduced in House (IH)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5313

  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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 9, 2006

   Mr. Gerlach (for himself, Mr. Kirk, Mrs. Miller of Michigan, Mrs. 
 Biggert, Mr. Weldon of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Reichert) 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 ``Open Space and Farmland Preservation 
Act''.

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

    (a) Additional Title-Holding Option; Reservation of Funds.--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 a fiscal year to carry 
        out this section, the Secretary shall reserve 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.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
take effect on October 1, 2006.
                                 <all>