[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1839 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1839

 To amend the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 to extend and expand the 
  market access program and the foreign market development cooperator 
                                program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 19, 2017

   Mr. King (for himself, Mrs. Ernst, Mr. Donnelly, and Ms. Collins) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
           Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 to extend and expand the 
  market access program and the foreign market development cooperator 
                                program.

    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 ``Cultivating Revitalization by 
Expanding American Agricultural Trade and Exports Act'' or the 
``CREAATE Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) between 1977 and 2014, the export promotion programs of 
        the Department of Agriculture (referred to in this section as 
        the ``programs'')--
                    (A) added an average each year of $8,150,000,000 to 
                the value of United States agricultural exports, a 
                total of $309,700,000,000 in export revenue, or 15.3 
                percent of the total value of United States 
                agricultural exports during that period; and
                    (B) generated a net return of $28.30 for each 
                dollar invested;
            (2) between 2002 and 2014, under less than full employment, 
        the programs--
                    (A) added an average each year of 2.7 percent, or 
                $8,400,000,000, to farm cash receipts;
                    (B) contributed up to 239,800 full- and part-time 
                jobs across the United States economy;
                    (C) added up to $39,300,000,000 in gross economic 
                output; and
                    (D) added up to $16,900,000,000 in gross domestic 
                product;
            (3) communities across the United States producing 
        agricultural commodities such as apples, cotton, beef, 
        soybeans, rice, wheat, dairy, corn, citrus, wine, pork, 
        peanuts, cranberries, lentils, tree nuts, timber, poultry, 
        potatoes, and seafood have used the programs to increase the 
        foreign market access of the communities;
            (4) private sector contributions have helped to maintain 
        the public-private partnership between the Department of 
        Agriculture and private agricultural groups as available funds 
        from the Department of Agriculture have declined, with private 
        contributions representing approximately 70 percent of the 
        funds available for export promotion in 2014;
            (5) foreign competitors have expanded agricultural export 
        promotion programs at a far faster rate than the United States, 
        placing United States agricultural producers at a competitive 
        disadvantage in international markets;
            (6) the economic impact of the programs has eroded in 
        recent years, as, while inflation has increased--
                    (A) funding for the market access program 
                established under section 203 of the Agricultural Trade 
                Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 5623) has remained static since 
                2006; and
                    (B) funding for the foreign market development 
                cooperator program established under title VII of the 
                Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 5721 et seq.) 
                has remained static since 2002; and
            (7) a recent academic analysis found that doubling public 
        funding for the market access program and the foreign market 
        development cooperator program and an increase in private 
        contributions from 10 to 50 percent would result in average 
        annual gains, under less than full employment--
                    (A) in agricultural exports from $3,400,000,000 to 
                $4,500,000,000; and
                    (B) in gross domestic product from $4,500,000,000 
                to $6,000,000,000.

SEC. 3. MARKET ACCESS PROGRAM.

    Section 211(c)(1)(A) of the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 (7 
U.S.C. 5641(c)(1)(A)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``not more than'' and all that follows 
        through ``through 2018,''; and
            (2) by striking ``Corporation; and'' and inserting 
        ``Corporation--
                            ``(i) for fiscal year 2018, $200,000,000;
                            ``(ii) for fiscal year 2019, $240,000,000;
                            ``(iii) for fiscal year 2020, $280,000,000;
                            ``(iv) for fiscal year 2021, $320,000,000;
                            ``(v) for fiscal year 2022, $360,000,000; 
                        and
                            ``(vi) for fiscal year 2023, $400,000,000; 
                        and''.

SEC. 4. FOREIGN MARKET DEVELOPMENT COOPERATOR PROGRAM.

    Section 703(a) of the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 (7 U.S.C. 
5723(a)) is amended by striking ``in the amount of'' and all that 
follows through the period at the end and inserting ``in an amount 
equal to--
            ``(1) for fiscal year 2018, $34,500,000;
            ``(2) for fiscal year 2019, $41,400,000;
            ``(3) for fiscal year 2020, $48,300,000;
            ``(4) for fiscal year 2021, $55,200,000;
            ``(5) for fiscal year 2022, $62,100,000; and
            ``(6) for fiscal year 2023, $69,000,000.''.
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