II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 598

To amend the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996

to improve the farmland protection program.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MARCH 11, 1999

Mr. SANTORUM introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

A BILL

To amend the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform

Act of 1996 to improve the farmland protection program.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Farmland Protection

5 Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FARMLAND PROTECTION PROGRAM.

7 Section 388 of the Federal Agriculture Improvement

8 and Reform Act of 1996 (16 U.S.C. 3830 note; Public

9 Law 104–127) is amended to read as follows:
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1 ‘‘SEC. 388. FARMLAND PROTECTION PROGRAM.

2 ‘‘(a) DEFINITION OF ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—In this sec3 tion, the term ‘eligible entity’ means—

4 ‘‘(1) any agency of any State or local govern5 ment, or federally recognized Indian tribe; and

6 ‘‘(2) any organization that—

7 ‘‘(A) is organized for, and at all times

8 since its formation has been operated prin9 cipally for, 1 or more of the conservation pur10 poses specified in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of sec11 tion 170(h)(4)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code

12 of 1986;

13 ‘‘(B) is an organization described in sec14 tion 501(c)(3) of the Code that is exempt from

15 taxation under section 501(a) of the Code; and

16 ‘‘(C)(i) is described in section 509(a)(2) of

17 the Code; or

18 ‘‘(ii) is described in section 509(a)(3) of

19 the Code and is controlled by an organization

20 described in section 509(a)(2) of the Code.

21 ‘‘(b) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary of Agriculture

22 shall establish and carry out a farmland protection pro23 gram under which the Secretary shall provide grants to

24 eligible entities, to provide the Federal share of the cost

25 of purchasing conservation easements or other interests

26 in land with prime, unique, or other productive soil for
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1 the purpose of protecting topsoil by limiting non2 agricultural uses of the land.

3 ‘‘(c) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—The Secretary may pro4 vide a grant to an eligible entity described in subsection

5 (a)(2) for the purchase of a conservation easement or

6 other interest in land within the jurisdiction of a State

7 or local government or federally recognized Indian tribe

8 only if the appropriate agency of the State or local govern9 ment or the federally recognized Indian tribe does not op10 erate a farmland protection program.

11 ‘‘(d) FEDERAL SHARE.—The Federal share of the

12 cost of purchasing a conservation easement or other inter13 est described in subsection (b) shall be not more than 50

14 percent.

15 ‘‘(e) CONSERVATION PLAN.—Any land for which a

16 conservation easement or other interest is purchased

17 under this section shall be subject to the requirements of

18 a conservation plan that requires, at the option of the Sec19 retary, the conversion of the land to less intensive uses.

20 ‘‘(f) RANKING CRITERIA.—The Secretary shall con21 sult with appropriate agencies of States and local govern22 ments and federally recognized Indian tribes in developing

23 criteria for ranking applications for grants under this sec24 tion.
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1 ‘‘(g) FUNDING.—For each fiscal year, the Secretary

2 shall use not more than $50,000,000 of the funds of the

3 Commodity Credit Corporation to carry out this section.’’.

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