7 U.S.C. § 4504 (AGRICULTURE)
§ 4504. Required terms in orders
Any order issued under this subchapter shall contain terms and conditions as follows:
(a) The order shall provide for the establishment and administration of appropriate plans or projects for advertisement and promotion of the sale and consumption of dairy products, for research projects related thereto, for nutrition education projects, and for the disbursement of necessary funds for such purposes. Any such plan or project shall be directed toward the sale and marketing or use of dairy products to the end that the marketing and use of dairy products may be encouraged, expanded, improved, or made more acceptable. No such advertising or sales promotion program shall make use of unfair or deceptive acts or practices with respect to the quality, value, or use of any competing product.
(b) National Dairy Promotion and Research Board.—
(1) The order shall provide for the establishment and appointment by the Secretary of a National Dairy Promotion and Research Board that shall consist of not less than thirty-six members.
(2) Except as provided in paragraph (6), the members of the Board shall be milk producers appointed by the Secretary from nominations submitted by eligible organizations certified under section 4505 of this title, or, if the Secretary determines that a substantial number of milk producers are not members of, or their interests are not represented by, any such eligible organization, then from nominations made by such milk producers in the manner authorized by the Secretary.
(3) In making such appointments, the Secretary shall take into account, to the extent practicable, the geographical distribution of milk production volume throughout the United States.
(4) In determining geographic representation, whole States shall be considered as a unit.
(5) A region may be represented by more than one director and a region may be made up of more than one State.
(6) Importers.—
(A) Initial representation.—
In making initial appointments to the Board of importer representatives, the Secretary shall appoint 2 members who represent importers of dairy products and are subject to assessments under the order.
(B) Subsequent representation.—
At least once every 3 years after the initial appointment of importer representatives under subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall review the average volume of domestic production of dairy products compared to the average volume of imports of dairy products into the United States during the previous 3 years and, on the basis of that review, shall reapportion importer representation on the Board to reflect the proportional share of the United States market by domestic production and imported dairy products.
(C) Additional members; nominations.—
The members appointed under this paragraph—
(i) shall be in addition to the total number of members appointed under paragraph (2); and
(ii) shall be appointed from nominations submitted by importers under such procedures as the Secretary determines to be appropriate.
(7) The term of appointment to the Board shall be for three years with no member serving more than two consecutive terms, except that initial appointments shall be proportionately for one-year, two-year, and three-year terms.
(8) The Board shall appoint from its members an executive committee whose membership shall equally reflect each of the different regions in the United States in which milk is produced as well as importers of dairy products.
(9) The executive committee shall have such duties and powers as are conferred upon it by the Board.
(10) Board members shall serve without compensation, but shall be reimbursed for their reasonable expenses incurred in performing their duties as members of the Board including a per diem allowance as recommended by the Board and approved by the Secretary.
(c) The order shall define the powers and duties of the Board that shall include only the powers enumerated in this section. These shall include, in addition to the powers set forth elsewhere in this section, the powers to (1) receive and evaluate, or on its own initiative develop, and budget for plans or projects to promote the use of fluid milk and dairy products as well as projects for research and nutrition education and to make recommendations to the Secretary regarding such proposals, (2) administer the order in accordance with its terms and provisions, (3) make rules and regulations to effectuate the terms and provisions of the order, (4) receive, investigate, and report to the Secretary complaints of violations of the order, and (5) recommend to the Secretary amendments to the order. The Board shall solicit, among others, research proposals that would increase the use of fluid milk and dairy products by the military and by persons in developing nations, and that would demonstrate the feasibility of converting surplus nonfat dry milk to casein for domestic and export use.
(d) The order shall provide that the Board shall develop and submit to the Secretary for approval any promotion, research, or nutrition education plan or project and that any such plan or project must be approved by the Secretary before becoming effective.
(e) Budgets.—
(1) Preparation and submission.—
The order shall require the Board to submit to the Secretary for approval budgets on a fiscal period basis of its anticipated expenses and disbursements in the administration of the order, including projected costs of dairy products promotion and research projects.
(2) Foreign market efforts.—
The order shall authorize the Board to expend in the maintenance and expansion of foreign markets an amount not to exceed the amount collected from United States producers for a fiscal year. Of those funds, for each of the 2002 through 2023 fiscal years, the Board’s budget may provide for the expenditure of revenues available to the Board to develop international markets for, and to promote within such markets, the consumption of dairy products produced or manufactured in the United States.
(f) The order shall provide that the Board, with the approval of the Secretary, may enter into agreements for the development and conduct of the activities authorized under the order as specified in subsection (a) and for the payment of the cost thereof with funds collected through assessments under the order. Any such agreement shall provide that (1) the contracting party shall develop and submit to the Board a plan or project together with a budget or budgets that shall show estimated costs to be incurred for such plan or project, (2) the plan or project shall become effective upon the approval of the Secretary, and (3) the contracting party shall keep accurate records of all of its transactions, account for funds received and expended, and make periodic reports to the Board of activities conducted, and such other reports as the Secretary or the Board may require.
(g) Assessments.—
(1) The order shall provide that each person making payment to a producer for milk produced in the United States and purchased from the producer shall, in the manner as prescribed by the order, collect an assessment based upon the number of hundredweights of milk for commercial use handled for the account of the producer and remit the assessment to the Board.
(2) The assessment shall be used for payment of the expenses in administering the order, with provision for a reasonable reserve, and shall include those administrative costs incurred by the Department after an order has been promulgated under this subchapter.
(3) Rate.—
(A) In general.—
The rate of assessment for milk produced in the United States prescribed by the order shall be 15 cents per hundredweight of milk for commercial use or the equivalent thereof, as determined by the Secretary.
(B) Imported dairy products.—
The rate of assessment for imported dairy products prescribed by the order shall be 7.5 cents per hundredweight of milk for commercial use or the equivalent thereof, as determined by the Secretary.
(4) A milk producer or the producer’s cooperative who can establish that the producer is participating in active, ongoing qualified State or regional dairy product promotion or nutrition education programs intended to increase consumption of milk and dairy products generally shall receive credit in determining the assessment due from such producer for contributions to such programs of up to 10 cents per hundredweight of milk marketed or, for the period ending six months after November 29, 1983, up to the aggregate rate in effect on November 29, 1983, of such contributions to such programs (but not to exceed 15 cents per hundredweight of milk marketed) if such aggregate rate exceeds 10 cents per hundredweight of milk marketed.
(5) Any person marketing milk of that person’s own production directly to consumers shall remit the assessment directly to the Board in the manner prescribed by the order.
(6) Importers.—
(A) In general.—
The order shall provide that each importer of imported dairy products shall pay an assessment to the Board in the manner prescribed by the order.
(B) Use of assessments on imported dairy products.—
Assessments collected on imported dairy products shall not be used for foreign market promotion.
(7) Refund of assessments on certain imported products.—
(A) In general.—
An importer shall be entitled to a refund of any assessment paid under this subsection on imported dairy products imported under a contract entered into prior to the date of enactment of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008.
(B) Expiration.—
Refunds under subparagraph (A) shall expire 1 year after the date of enactment of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008.
(h) The order shall require the Board to (1) maintain such books and records (which shall be available to the Secretary for inspection and audit) as the Secretary may prescribe, (2) prepare and submit to the Secretary, from time to time, such reports as the Secretary may prescribe, and (3) account for the receipt and disbursement of all funds entrusted to it.
(i) The order shall provide that the Board, with the approval of the Secretary, may invest, pending disbursement under a plan or project, funds collected through assessments authorized under this subchapter only in obligations of the United States or any agency thereof, in general obligations of any State or any political subdivision thereof, in any interest-bearing account or certificate of deposit of a bank that is a member of the Federal Reserve System, or in obligations fully guaranteed as to principal and interest by the United States.
(j) The order shall prohibit any funds collected by the Board under the order from being used in any manner for the purpose of influencing governmental policy or action except as provided by subsection (c)(5).
(k) The order shall require that each importer of imported dairy products, each person receiving milk from farmers for commercial use, and any person marketing milk of that person’s own production directly to consumers, maintain and make available for inspection such books and records as may be required by the order and file reports at the time, in the manner, and having the content prescribed by the order. Such information shall be made available to the Secretary as is appropriate to the administration or enforcement of this subchapter, or any order or regulation issued under this subchapter. All information so obtained shall be kept confidential by all officers and employees of the Department, and only such information so obtained as the Secretary deems relevant may be disclosed by them and then only in a suit or administrative hearing brought at the request of the Secretary, or to which the Secretary or any officer of the United States is a party, and involving the order with reference to which the information to be disclosed was obtained. Nothing in this subsection may be deemed to prohibit (1) the issuance of general statements, based upon the reports, of the number of persons subject to an order or statistical data collected therefrom, which statements do not identify the information furnished by any person, or (2) the publication, by direction of the Secretary, of the name of any person violating any order, together with a statement of the particular provisions of the order violated by such person. No information obtained under the authority of this subchapter may be made available to any agency or officer of the Federal Government for any purpose other than the implementation of this subchapter and any investigatory or enforcement action necessary for the implementation of this subchapter. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall, upon conviction, be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000, or to imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, and, if an officer or employee of the Board or the Department, shall be removed from office.
(l) The order shall provide terms and conditions, not inconsistent with the provisions of this subchapter, as necessary to effectuate the provisions of the order.
(Pub. L. 98–180, title I, § 113, Nov. 29, 1983, 97 Stat. 1137; Pub. L. 104–127, title I, § 152, Apr. 4, 1996, 110 Stat. 922; Pub. L. 107–171, title I, § 1505(b)–(e), May 13, 2002, 116 Stat. 208, 209; Pub. L. 110–234, title I, § 1507(a), (d)–(f), May 22, 2008, 122 Stat. 997; Pub. L. 110–246, § 4(a), title I, § 1507(a), (d)–(f), June 18, 2008, 122 Stat. 1664, 1725; Pub. L. 113–79, title I, § 1426, Feb. 7, 2014, 128 Stat. 695; Pub. L. 115–334, title I, § 1402(c), Dec. 20, 2018, 132 Stat. 4518.)
heading: References in Text
text: The date of enactment of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, referred to in subsec. (g)(7), is the date of enactment of Pub. L. 110–246, which was approved June 18, 2008.
heading: Codification
text: Pub. L. 110–234 and Pub. L. 110–246 made identical amendments to this section. The amendments by Pub. L. 110–234 were repealed by section 4(a) of Pub. L. 110–246.
heading: Amendments
text: 2018—Subsec. (e)(2). Pub. L. 115–334 substituted “2023” for “2018”.
2014—Subsec. (e)(2). Pub. L. 113–79 substituted “2018” for “2012”.
2008—Subsec. (e)(2). Pub. L. 110–246, § 1507(a), substituted “2012” for “2007”.
Subsec. (g)(3). Pub. L. 110–246, § 1507(d), added par. (3) and struck out former par. (3) which read as follows: “The rate of assessment for milk produced in the United States and imported dairy products prescribed by the order shall be 15 cents per hundredweight of milk for commercial use or the equivalent thereof, as determined by the Secretary.”
Subsec. (g)(6)(B), (C). Pub. L. 110–246, § 1507(e), redesignated subpar. (C) as (B) and struck out former subpar. (B). Prior to amendment, text read as follows: “The assessment on imported dairy products shall be paid by the importer to Customs at the time the entry documents are filed with Customs. Customs shall remit the assessments to the Board. For purposes of this subparagraph, the term ‘importer’ includes persons who hold title to foreign-produced dairy products immediately upon release by Customs, as well as persons who act on behalf of others, as agents, brokers, or consignees, to secure the release of dairy products from Customs.”
Subsec. (g)(7). Pub. L. 110–246, § 1507(f), added par. (7).
2002—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 107–171, § 1505(b), inserted heading, designated first to ninth sentences as pars. (1) to (5) and (7) to (10), respectively, and realigned margins, substituted “Except as provided in paragraph (6), the members of the Board” for “Members of the Board” in par. (2) and “is produced as well as importers of dairy products” for “is produced” in par. (8), and added par. (6).
Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 107–171, § 1505(c), inserted heading, designated existing provisions as par. (1), inserted heading, and struck out “For each of fiscal years 1997 through 2001, the Board’s budget may provide for the expenditure of revenues available to the Board to develop international markets for, and to promote within such markets, the consumption of dairy products produced in the United States from milk produced in the United States.” at end, and added par. (2).
Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 107–171, § 1505(d), inserted heading, designated first to fifth sentences as pars. (1) to (5), respectively, and realigned margins, inserted “for milk produced in the United States and imported dairy products” after “The rate of assessment” and “, as determined by the Secretary” before period at end in par. (3), and added par. (6).
Subsec. (k). Pub. L. 107–171, § 1505(e), substituted “importer of imported dairy products, each person receiving milk from farmers” for “person receiving milk from farmers” in first sentence.
1996—Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 104–127 inserted at end “For each of fiscal years 1997 through 2001, the Board’s budget may provide for the expenditure of revenues available to the Board to develop international markets for, and to promote within such markets, the consumption of dairy products produced in the United States from milk produced in the United States.”
heading: Effective Date of 2008 Amendment
text: Amendment of this section and repeal of Pub. L. 110–234 by Pub. L. 110–246 effective May 22, 2008, the date of enactment of Pub. L. 110–234, see section 4 of Pub. L. 110–246, set out as an Effective Date note under section 8701 of this title.