Specialty Crops Competition Act of 2006

Bill: 109-s-2487
Sponsor: Sen. Craig, Larry E. [R-ID]
Introduced: 2006-03-31 in the Senate
Policy area: Agriculture and Food
Subjects: Administrative remedies
Agricultural conservation
Agricultural credit
Agricultural estimating and reporting
Agricultural innovations
Agricultural machinery
Agricultural prices
Agricultural research
Agricultural subsidies
Agriculture in foreign trade
Animals
Commerce
Congress
Congressional investigations
Congressional reporting requirements
Department of Agriculture
Economics and Public Finance
Environmental Protection
Executive reorganization
Exotic plants
Finance and Financial Sector
Food safety
Foreign Trade and International Finance
Foreign trade promotion
Free trade
Fruit
Government Operations and Politics
Government publicity
Grants-in-aid
Intellectual property
International Affairs
Law
Marketing of farm produce
Nontariff trade barriers
Patents
Pest control
Plant breeding
Plant protection
Produce trade
Public Lands and Natural Resources
Science, Technology, Communications
Strategic planning
Sustainable agriculture
Trade agreements
Trees
Vegetables
Veterinary medicine

Summary:
action_date: 2006-03-31
text: 
Specialty Crops Competition Act of 2006 - Defines "specialty crop" as each U.S. agricultural crop other than wheat, feed grains, oilseeds, cotton, rice, peanuts, sugar, dry peas, lentils, chickpeas, and tobacco.
 
Amends the Agricultural Adjustment Act to provide for marketing order specialty crop food safety programs.
 
Amends the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 to: (1) increase assistance for the tree assistance program; (2) provide for increased fruit, vegetable, and specialty crop purchases; and (3) increase and extend specialty crop technical assistance.
 
Obligates funds for fruit and vegetable marketing news activities.
 
Amends the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to obligate funds for specialty crop operating loans.
 
Provides for: (1) the study of the extent to which U.S. specialty crops have or have not benefited from any reductions of foreign trade barriers; and (2) a foreign market access strategy plan based on such study.
 
Establishes a division in the Department of Agriculture to process petitions for reducing sanitary and phytosanitary export barriers and an office to develop and protect intellectual property rights in plants and plant materials.
 
Amends Federal patent law to define &quot;essentially derived plant.&quot;
 
Provides for: (1) a national specialty crops development initiative grants program; (2) research on mechanized harvesting and new production and processing methods; and (3) a national clean plant network.
 
Establishes the Invasive Pest and Disease Response Fund in the Treasury to support emergency eradication and research activities. 
 
Provides for independent scientific advice and peer review with regard to specialty crop import and export requests.
 
Authorizes food safety initiatives.
 
Amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to remove the income limitation from the environmental quality incentives program.
 
Addresses the development of voluntary sustainable practices guidelines for producers and processors of specialty crops.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2006-03-31
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
action_date: 2006-03-31
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S2690)
action_date: 2006-03-31
text: Introduced in Senate