110 HR 6849 IH: To amend the commodity provisions of the Food, U.S. House of Representatives 2008-09-09 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

I 110th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 6849 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 9, 2008 Mr. Etheridge (for himself and Mr. Moran of Kansas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture A BILL To amend the commodity provisions of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 to permit producers to aggregate base acres and reconstitute farms to avoid the prohibition on receiving direct payments, counter-cyclical payments, or average crop revenue election payments when the sum of the base acres of a farm is 10 acres or less, and for other purposes.

1.

Aggregation of base acres and reconstitution of farms to ensure eligibility for direct payments, counter-cyclical payments, or average crop revenue election payments

Section 1101(d) of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 8711(d)) is amended— (1)by striking paragraph (2); (2)by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph (4); and (3)by inserting after paragraph (1) the following new paragraphs: (2)

Exceptions

Paragraph (1) shall not apply— (A)to a farm owned by a socially disadvantaged farmer or rancher (as defined in section 355(e) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 2003(e))); (B)to a farm owned by a limited resource farmer or rancher, as defined by the Secretary; or (C)when the aggregate total base acres of all farms of a producer are greater than 10 acres, including farms— (i)owned by a producer; and (ii)operated by a producer with the concurrence of the owners of the farm, including farms operated under a crop-share lease arrangement. (3)

Reconstitutions

In addition to other actions the Secretary determines appropriate, the Secretary shall permit a producer to reconstitute any farms of the producer covered under paragraph (2)(C) to exceed the 10 base acre minimum described in paragraph (1) through consolidation of the base acreage of the farms. .