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106TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 2442

To amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to authorize

the Secretary of Agriculture to provide long-term, low-interest loans

to apple growers.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

APRIL 13, 2000

Mrs. MURRAY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

A BILL

To amend the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development

Act to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to provide

long-term, low-interest loans to apple growers.

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 ‘‘Apple Orchard Diver5 sification Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress finds that—
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1 (1) United States apple producers are strug2 gling as the result of low prices and weather-related

3 crop losses in 1998 and 1999;

4 (2) it is estimated the United States apple in5 dustry lost nearly $300,000,000 on the 1998 crop;

6 (3) it is estimated that in some counties up to

7 90 percent of the apple producers will not recover

8 1999 production costs;

9 (4) many apple producers are in danger of not

10 receiving financing from commercial lenders for the

11 2000 crop;

12 (5) many local communities (including busi13 nesses, schools, towns, county governments, and irri14 gation districts) that support and are supported by

15 apple producers are hard hit by downturns in fresh

16 apple and juice concentrate prices;

17 (6) as a result of the economic situation, some

18 local communities declared economic disasters and

19 petitioned Federal and State elected officials to de20 clare disasters and provide assistance;

21 (7) United States apple producers are harmed

22 by foreign trade barriers and by United States Gov23 ernment trade restrictions, including unilateral trade

24 sanctions;
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1 (8) the United States Government is not meet2 ing its obligations to expand trade promotion and

3 agricultural research in accordance with the Federal

4 Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996

5 (Public Law 104–127; 110 Stat. 888) and amend6 ments made by that Act;

7 (9) imports of below-cost apple juice con8 centrate from China—

9 (A) increased by more than 1,200 percent

10 between 1995 and 1998; and

11 (B) led to a 64-percent decline in the price

12 that producers received for juice apples in the

13 same period;

14 (10) in April 2000, the Department of Com15 merce levied antidumping duties of 51.74 percent on

16 most Chinese concentrate imports;

17 (11) the International Trade Commission will

18 issue a final injury ruling by May 22, 2000, on the

19 United States apple industry’s dumping case against

20 below-cost apple juice concentrate imports from

21 China;

22 (12) existing Federal farm policy is inadequate

23 to meet the needs, particularly the credit needs, of

24 United States specialty crop producers during dif25 ficult economic times;
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1 (13) the United States Government should

2 modify agricultural credit policies to provide a vari3 ety of flexible long-term, low-interest loan options to

4 United States specialty crop producers in response

5 to periods of low prices or natural disasters;

6 (14) there is a need to promote diversification

7 into more economically viable apple varieties that

8 promise to provide greater financial returns for

9 apple producers; and

10 (15) an apple orchard diversification initiative

11 that provides long-term, low-interest loans would re12 duce surpluses in the short term, while enhancing

13 the ability of family farmers to modernize their or14 chards and stay in business in the long term.

15 SEC. 3. APPLE ORCHARD DIVERSIFICATION PROGRAM.

16 Subtitle B of the Consolidated Farm and Rural De17 velopment Act (7 U.S.C. 1941 et seq.) is amended by in18 serting after section 314 the following:

19 ‘‘SEC. 315. APPLE ORCHARD DIVERSIFICATION PROGRAM.

20 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the

21 date of enactment of this section, the Secretary shall de22 velop and implement an apple orchard diversification pro23 gram under which the Secretary provides not more than

24 $75,000,000 in long-term, low-interest loans to apple

25 growers.
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1 ‘‘(b) USE OF LOANS.—A loan under subsection (a)

2 shall be used for the purchase of trees for converting exist3 ing apple orchards into new apple varieties.’’.

4 SEC. 4. REGULATIONS.

5 (a) PROMULGATION.—Not later than 30 days after

6 the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agri7 culture, shall promulgate such regulations as are nec8 essary to implement the amendment made by section 3.

9 (b) PROCEDURE.—The promulgation of the regula10 tions under subsection (a) and the administration of the

11 section added by the amendment made by section 3 shall

12 be made without regard to—

13 (1) the notice and comment provisions of sec14 tion 553 of title 5, United States Code;

15 (2) the Statement of Policy of the Secretary of

16 Agriculture effective July 24, 1971 (36 Fed. Reg.

17 13804), relating to notices of proposed rulemaking

18 and public participation in rulemaking; and

19 (3) chapter 35 of title 44, United States Code

20 (commonly known as the ‘‘Paperwork Reduction

21 Act’’).

22 (c) STAKEHOLDER PROCESS.—

23 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish

24 a stakeholder process to provide input to the Sec-
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1 retary in developing the program established by the

2 amendment made by section 3.

3 (2) HEARINGS.—In the stakeholder process, the

4 Secretary shall hold at least 3 hearings in different

5 regions of the United States.

6 (3) CONSIDERATIONS.—In developing the pro7 gram, the Secretary shall consider—

8 (A) income and acreage qualifications for

9 growers receiving loans;

10 (B) parameters on payments, acreage, and

11 varietal stock quality; and

12 (C) the comments of apple producers con13 cerning the length of time that the program

14 should be continued.

15 (d) CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW OF AGENCY RULE16 MAKING.—In carrying out this section, the Secretary shall

17 use the authority provided under section 808 of title 5,

18 United States Code.

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