[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3644 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3644

   To require the Secretary of Agriculture to provide crop disaster 
assistance to agricultural producers that suffered qualifying quantity 
  or quality losses for the 2008 crop year due to a natural disaster.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

           September 27 (legislative day, September 17), 2008

Ms. Landrieu (for herself, Mrs. Hutchison, Mrs. Lincoln, Mr. Pryor, Mr. 
Wicker, and Mr. Cochran) introduced the following bill; which was read 
  twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and 
                                Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To require the Secretary of Agriculture to provide crop disaster 
assistance to agricultural producers that suffered qualifying quantity 
  or quality losses for the 2008 crop year due to a natural disaster.

    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 ``Farm Relief Act of 2008''.

SEC. 2. 2008 CROP DISASTER ASSISTANCE.

    Section 9001 of the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina 
Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 (Public Law 
110-28; 121 Stat. 211) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) by striking ``There are hereby'' and inserting 
                the following:
            ``(1) In general.--There are hereby''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2) 2008 crop disaster assistance.--
                    ``(A) In general.--There are hereby appropriated to 
                the Secretary such sums as are necessary, to remain 
                available until expended, to make emergency financial 
                assistance under this section available to producers on 
                a farm that incurred qualifying quantity or quality 
                losses for the 2008 crop due a natural disaster or any 
                related condition, as determined by the Secretary.
                    ``(B) Sugar and sugarcane disaster assistance.--
                            ``(i) Florida.--There are hereby 
                        appropriated to the Secretary such sums as are 
                        necessary, to remain available until expended, 
                        to make payments to processors in Florida that 
                        are eligible to obtain a loan under section 
                        156(a) of the Federal Agriculture Improvement 
                        and Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7272(a)) to 
                        compensate first processors and producers for 
                        crop and other losses due a natural disaster or 
                        any related condition, as determined by the 
                        Secretary, in Florida during calendar year 
                        2008, by an agreement on the same terms and 
                        conditions, to the maximum extent practicable, 
                        as the payments made under section 102 of the 
                        Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for 
                        Hurricane Disasters Assistance Act of 2005 
                        (Public Law 108-324; 118 Stat. 1235), including 
                        that the 2008 base production of each 
                        harvesting unit shall be determined using the 
                        same base year crop production history that was 
                        used pursuant to the agreement under that 
                        section.
                            ``(ii) Louisiana.--
                                    ``(I) Compensation for losses.--
                                There are hereby appropriated to the 
                                Secretary such sums as are necessary, 
                                to remain available until expended, to 
                                make assistance available to first 
                                processors of sugarcane that operate in 
                                a county affected by a natural 
                                disaster, or obtain sugarcane from a 
                                county affected by a natural disaster, 
                                in Louisiana and that are eligible to 
                                obtain a loan under section 156(a) of 
                                the Federal Agriculture Improvement and 
                                Reform Act of 1996 (7 U.S.C. 7272(a)), 
                                in the form of monetary payments or 
                                commodities in the inventory of the 
                                Commodity Credit Corporation derived 
                                from carrying out that section, to 
                                compensate producers and first 
                                processors for crop and other losses 
                                due to the natural disaster or any 
                                related condition, as determined by the 
                                Secretary.
                                    ``(II) Administration.--Assistance 
                                under this clause shall be--
                                            ``(aa) shared by an 
                                        affected first processor with 
                                        affected producers that provide 
                                        commodities to the processor in 
                                        a manner that reflects 
                                        contracts entered into between 
                                        the processor and the 
                                        producers, except with respect 
                                        to a portion of the amount of 
                                        total assistance provided under 
                                        subclause (I) necessary to 
                                        compensate affected producers 
                                        for individual losses 
                                        experienced by the producers, 
                                        including losses due to 
                                        saltwater intrusion, flooding, 
                                        wind damage, or increased 
                                        planting, replanting, or 
                                        harvesting costs, which shall 
                                        be transferred by the first 
                                        processor to the affected 
                                        producers without regard to 
                                        contractual share arrangements; 
                                        and
                                            ``(bb) made available under 
                                        such terms and conditions as 
                                        the Secretary determines are 
                                        necessary to carry out this 
                                        clause.
                                    ``(III) Form of assistance.--In 
                                carrying out this clause, the Secretary 
                                shall--
                                            ``(aa) convey to the first 
                                        processor commodities in the 
                                        inventory of the Commodity 
                                        Credit Corporation derived from 
                                        carrying out section 156(a) of 
                                        the Federal Agriculture 
                                        Improvement and Reform Act of 
                                        1996 (7 U.S.C. 7272(a));
                                            ``(bb) make monetary 
                                        payments to the first 
                                        processor; or
                                            ``(cc) take any combination 
                                        of actions described in items 
                                        (aa) and (bb), using 
                                        commodities or monetary 
                                        payments.
                                    ``(IV) Loss determination.--In 
                                carrying out this clause, the Secretary 
                                shall use the same base year to 
                                determine crop loss that was elected by 
                                a producer to determine crop loss in 
                                carrying out the hurricane assistance 
                                program under section 207 of the 
                                Agricultural Assistance Act of 2003 
                                (Public Law 108-7; 117 Stat. 543).
                            ``(iii) Texas.--There are hereby 
                        appropriated to the Secretary such sums as are 
                        necessary, to remain available until expended, 
                        to assist sugarcane growers in Texas by making 
                        a payment in that amount to a farmer-owned 
                        cooperative sugarcane processor in that State, 
                        for costs of demurrage, storage, and 
                        transportation resulting from natural disaster 
                        or any related condition during calendar year 
                        2008.
                    ``(C) Relation to supplemental agricultural 
                disaster assistance program.--A producer on a farm that 
                accepts assistance made available under this paragraph 
                for a crop loss is not eligible to receive supplemental 
                agricultural disaster assistance for that crop loss 
                under subtitle B of the Federal Crop Insurance Act (7 
                U.S.C. 1531) or title IX of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 
                U.S.C. 2497 et seq.).''; and
            (2) in subsection (b), by striking ``this section'' each 
        place it appears and inserting ``subsection (a)(1)''.

SEC. 3. AQUACULTURE GRANTS.

    (a) Definition of Eligible Applicant.--In this section, the term 
``eligible applicant'' means a producer of animals described in section 
10806(a)(1) of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (21 
U.S.C. 321d(a)(1)) during the 2008 calendar year.
    (b) Aquaculture Grants.--Of the funds of the Commodity Credit 
Corporation, the Secretary of Agriculture shall use $50,000,000 to 
provide grants to appropriate State departments of agriculture (or 
other appropriate State agencies) that agree to provide assistance to 
eligible applicants through animal feed providers that agree to make 
the assistance available on a pro rata basis to eligible applicants 
based on documented feed use by the eligible applicants during the 2008 
calendar year to help offset feed costs or economic losses caused by 
natural disasters.
    (c) Duty of Secretary.--The Secretary shall ensure that--
            (1) funds made available under subsection (b) are 
        apportioned in an equitable manner among the States that 
        receive funds under this section; and
            (2) assistance is made available based only on documented 
        feed use.
    (d) 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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