I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3513
To provide for grants to assist value-added agricultural businesses.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 19, 1999
Mr. TALENT (for himself and Mr. THUNE) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Agriculture
A BILL
To provide for grants to assist value-added agricultural
businesses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Value-Added Develop-
ment Act for American Agriculture’’.
SEC. 2. AGRICULTURE INNOVATION CENTER DEMONSTRA-
TION PROGRAM.
(a) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this section are to
carry out a demonstration program under which agricul-
tural producers are provided—
(1) technical assistance, including engineering
services, applied research, scale production, and
similar services to enable the producers to establish
businesses for further processing of agricultural
products;
(2) marketing, market development, and busi-
ness planning;
(3) overall organizational, outreach, and devel-
opment assistance to increase the viability, growth,
and sustainability of value-added agricultural busi-
nesses.
(b) NATURE OF PROGRAM.—The Secretary of Agri-
culture (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’)
shall—
(1) make grants to eligible applicants for the
purposes of enabling the applicants to obtain the as-
sistance described in subsection (a); and
(2) provide assistance to eligible applicants
through the research and technical services of the
Department of Agriculture.
(c) ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—An applicant shall be eligible
for a grant and assistance described in subsection
(b) to establish an Agriculture Innovation Center
if—
(A) the applicant—
(i) has provided services similar to
those described in subsection (a); or
(ii) shows the capability of providing
the services;
(B) the application of the applicant for the
grant and assistance sets forth a plan, in ac-
cordance with regulations which shall be pre-
scribed by the Secretary, outlining support of
the applicant in the agricultural community, the
technical and other expertise of the applicant,
and the goals of the applicant for increasing
and improving the ability of local producers to
develop markets and processes for value-added
agricultural products; and
(C) the applicant meets the requirement of
paragraph (2).
(2) BOARD OF DIRECTORS.—The requirement
of this paragraph is that the applicant shall have a
board of directors comprised of representatives of
the following groups:
(A) The 2 general agricultural organiza-
tions with the greatest number of members in
the State in which the applicant is located.
(B) The Department of Agriculture or
similar State organization or department, for
the State.
(C) Organizations representing the 4 high-
est grossing commodities produced in the State,
according to annual gross cash sales.
(d) GRANTS AND ASSISTANCE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to the availability of
appropriations, the Secretary shall make annual
grants to eligible applicants under this section, each
of which grants shall not exceed $1,000,000.
(2) INITIAL LIMITATION.—In the first 3 years
of the demonstration program under this section, the
Secretary may make grants under this section, on a
competitive basis, to not more than 10 eligible appli-
cants, including those whose applications provide for
the operation of an Agriculture Innovation Center in
the following States:
(A) Missouri.
(B) Mississippi.
(C) Ohio.
(D) New Mexico.
(E) South Dakota.
(F) Texas.
(G) Wisconsin.