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United States · Bill · S

S. 1541 (104th)

Agricultural Reform and Improvement Act of 1996

openUnited States· United States Congress· EN

Introduced

26 January 1996

Last action

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Status

See also H.R. 2854.

Sponsors

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Subjects

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Source updated

7 April 2025

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Summary

Agricultural Market Transition Act of 1996 - Subtitle A: Agricultural Market Transition Program - Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary) to enter into production flexibility contracts through crop year 2002 with eligible agricultural operators and owners with respect to conservation, wetlands, and planting flexibility requirements. Requires contracts to be entered into by April 15, 1996, with certain exceptions for conservation reserve lands. Defines eligible "owners and operators" and "farmland." Sets forth: (1) contract payment amounts for each of FY 1996 through 2002 and allocation amounts for wheat, corn, grain sorghum, barley, oats, upland cotton, and rice; and (2) annual payment rate factors. Permits any commodity or crop to be planted on contract acreage with special provisions and limitations for fruit and vegetables, haying and grazing, alfalfa, and legumes. (Sec. 14) Directs the Secretary to make nonrecourse marketing assistance loans for crop years 1996 through 2002 to producers of wheat, feed grains (corn, grain sorghum, barley, and oats), upland and extra long staple cotton, and oilseeds (sunflower, canola, rapeseed, safflower, mustard, flaxseed, and other oilseeds). Sets forth commodity loan rate, term, and repayment provisions. Directs the Secretary to make loan deficiency payments to producers (of other than extra long staple cotton) who forego obtaining such nonrecourse loans in an amount equal to the difference between a commodity's loan rate and repayment level. Establishes special marketing loan provisions for upland cotton, including: (1) cotton user marketing certificates; (2) a special import quota; and (3) a limited global import quota for upland cotton. (Sec. 15) Establishes fiscal year payment limitations for individuals of: (1) $40,000 for flexibility contracts; and (2) $75,000 for marketing loan and loan deficiency payments. (Sec. 16) Directs the Secretary to: (1) make nonrecourse loans available to quota peanut producers at $610 per ton and to additional peanut producers at appropriate rates; (2) make related warehouse storage loans available; (3) provide for marketing area pools for quota and additional peanuts, with separate pools for New Mexico-produced Valencia peanuts; (4) require that all domestic and export peanuts comply with specified quality standards; and (5) provide for a nonrefundable marketing assessment. Provides that: (1) net gains from each marketing pool shall be distributed only to pool producers; and (2) losses in quota pools shall be covered using a specified order of priority. Prohibits the Secretary from making quota peanut loans if producers have disapproved poundage quotas. Amends the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 with regard to the peanut program to: (1) extend peanut quota provisions through crop year 2002; (2) eliminate the minimum national poundage quota; (3) eliminate seed peanuts from the national poundage quota determination; (4) create a temporary quota allocation for seed peanuts; (5) eliminate the Texas increased quota allocation; and (5) authorize transfers of additional peanuts to the quota pool where natural disasters prevented quota poundage harvesting and marketing. (Sec. 17) Directs the Secretary to make recourse loans available to processors of domestically grown sugarcane and sugar beets at 18 cents per pound and 22.9 cents per pound, respectively. Sets loan terms at the earlier of nine months or the end of the fiscal year, with supplemental loans available for loans made in the last three months of a fiscal year. Authorizes the Secretary to provide nonrecourse loans when the imported tariff rate quota for sugar imports exceeds 1.5 million short tons raw value. Sets forth first processor sugarcane and sugar beet marketing assessment rates for FY 1996 through 2003, which shall be collected monthly and remitted to the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC). Sets forth enforcement and reporting provisions. Amends the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 to repeal marketing allotment provisions. Makes this section applicable to the 1996 through 2002 crops of sugarcane and sugar beets. (Sec. 18) Directs the Secretary to carry out the provisions of this subtitle through the CCC. (Sec. 19) Repeals the Agricultural Act of 1949, with specified sections transferred to the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938. (Eliminates permanent price support authority.) Makes conforming amendments to the Agricultural Act of 1938. Subtitle B: Conservation - Amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to provide mandatory FY 1996 through 2002 funding through the CCC for the conservation reserve and wetlands programs, and the livestock environmental assistance program. Establishes the livestock environmental assistance program to provide FY 1996 through 2002 technical assistance and cost-sharing and incentive payments to livestock producers who enter into land management and structural contracts to protect water, soil, and related resources from livestock-related degradation. (Makes waste management facility construction ineligible for cost-sharing payments.) Replaces wetlands reserve program permanent easement authority with 15-year easement authority. Limits conservation reserve program total acreage enrollment to 36.4 million acres. Authorizes producers to terminate program participation. Prohibits new acreage enrollment in 1997. Subtitle C: Agricultural Promotion and Export Programs - Amends the Agricultural Trade Act of 1978 to: (1) authorize specified FY 1996 through 2002 appropriations for the market promotion program; and (2) authorize specified FY 1996 through 2002 funding from the CCC for the export enhancement program. Subtitle D: Miscellaneous - Amends the Federal Crop Insurance Act to authorize the Secretary, in consultation with insurance providers, to offer catastrophic risk protection in a State (or portion of a State) through local Department of Agriculture offices if the Secretary determines insufficient coverage is otherwise available. Provides for the transfer of current policies to private insurers. States that beginning with the spring-planted 1996 crop catastrophic coverage shall not be required for agricultural program benefits if the producer signs a written emergency crop loss assistance waiver. Extends crop insurance provisions to seed crops. (Sec. 52) Amends the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 to authorize the Secretary to collect fees to cover the costs of providing import quarantine and inspection services. Establishes in the Treasury the Agricultural Quarantine Inspection User Fee Account. (Sec. 53) Increases the CCC interest rate applicable to agricultural commodity loans by 100 basis points.

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