Topic: Agriculture — General
Subject: Economics and public finance
Date: 2008-07-21 00:00:00

Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2009 - Title I: Agricultural Programs - Appropriates FY2009 funds for the following Department of Agriculture (Department) programs and services: (1) Office of the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary); (2) Office of the Chief Economist; (3) National Appeals Division; (4) Office of Budget and Program Analysis; (5) Office of Homeland Security; (6) Office of the Chief Information Officer; (7) Office of the Chief Financial Officer; (8) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights; (9) Office of Civil Rights; (10) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration; (11) agriculture buildings and facilities and rental payments; (12) hazardous materials management; (13) departmental administration; (14) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations; (15) Office of Communications; (16) Office of the Inspector General; (17) Office of the General Counsel; (18) Office of the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics; (19) Economic Research Service; (20) National Agricultural Statistics Service; (21) Agricultural Research Service; (22) Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service; (23) Native Americans Institutions Endowment Fund; (24) extension and integrated activities; (25) Office of the Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs; (26) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; (27) Agricultural Marketing Service; (28) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration; (29) Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety; (30) Food Safety and Inspection Service; (31) Office of the Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services; (32) Farm Service Agency; (33) Risk Management Agency; (34) Federal Crop Insurance Corporation Fund; and (35) Commodity Credit Corporation Fund. Title II: Conservation Programs - Appropriates funds for the following: (1) Office of the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment; and (2) Natural Resources Conservation Service. Title III: Rural Development Programs - Appropriates funds for the following: (1) Office of the Under Secretary for Rural Development; (2) rural development salaries and expenses; (3) Rural Housing Service; (4) Rural Business-Cooperative Service; and (5) Rural Utilities Service. Title IV: Domestic Food Programs - Appropriates funds for the following: (1) Office of the Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services; and (2) Food and Nutrition Service. Title V: Foreign Assistance and Related Programs - Appropriates funds for the following: (1) Foreign Agricultural Service; (2) Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 (P.L. 480) program account, title I ocean freight differential grants, and title II grants; (3) Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) export loans program account; and (4) McGovern-Dole international food for education and child nutrition program grants. Title VI: Related Agencies and Food and Drug Administration - Appropriates funds for the following: (1) Food and Drug Administration (FDA); and (2) Farm Credit Administration. Title VII: General Provisions - Specifies certain uses and limits on or prohibitions against the use of funds appropriated by this Act. (Sec. 703) Authorizes the Secretary to transfer unobligated balances to the Working Capital Fund for plant and capital equipment acquisition. (Sec. 704) States that appropriations under this Act shall not remain available for obligation beyond the current fiscal year unless expressly provided for. (Sec. 705) Limits negotiated indirect costs on cooperative agreements between the Department and nonprofit organizations to 10%. (Sec. 708) Prohibits the use of funds under this Act for the Safe Meat and Poultry Inspection Panel. (Sec. 709) Requires that Department agencies reimburse each other for employees detailed for longer than 30 days. (Sec. 712) Prohibits, without congressional notification, funds available under this Act or under previous appropriations Acts from being used through a reprogramming of funds to: (1) eliminate or create a new program; (2) relocate or reorganize an office or employees; or (3) privatize federal employee functions. Prohibits, without congressional notification, funds available under this Act or under previous appropriations Acts from being used through a reprogramming of funds in excess of $500,000 or 10%, whichever is less: (1) to augment an existing program; (2) to reduce by 10% funding or personnel for any existing program; or (3) that results from a reduction in personnel which would result in a change in existing programs. (Sec. 713) Prohibits the use of funds for user fee proposals that fail to provide certain budget impact information. (Sec. 714) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used to close or relocate the FDA Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis in St. Louis, Missouri, outside the city or county limits. (Sec. 715) Limits funds made available in FY2009 or preceding fiscal years under P.L. 480 to reimburse CCC for the release of certain commodities under the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust Act. (Sec. 716) Prohibits funds under this Act from being used to revise a proposed rule (July 8, 2003) regarding cost-sharing for animal and plant health emergency programs of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. (Sec. 717) Appropriates funds to the Denali Commission to address solid waste disposal problems which threaten to contaminate rural drinking water supplies. (Sec. 718) Requires that funds made available in the current fiscal year be used to cover obligations made in such fiscal year for the following Food Security Act of 1985 programs: (1) the ground and surface water conservation program; (2) the conservation reserve program; (3) the wetlands reserve program; (4) the conservation security program; (5) the conservation stewardship program; (6) the farmland protection program; (7) the grassland reserve program; (8) the environmental quality incentives program; and (9) the wildlife habitat incentives program. Requires that funds made available in the current fiscal year for federal crop insurance education and management assistance under the Federal Crop Insurance Act be used to cover obligations made in such fiscal year. (Sec. 719) Provides that any former Rural Utilities Service borrower that has repaid or prepaid an insured, direct or guaranteed loan under the Rural Electrification Act, or any not-for-profit utility that is eligible to receive an insured or direct loan under such Act, shall be eligible for economic development and job creation assistance under such Act in the same manner as a borrower (under such Act). (Sec. 720) Authorizes the Secretary to: (1) make funding and other assistance available through the emergency watershed protection program to repair and prevent damage to nonfederal land in watersheds that have been impaired by fires initiated by the federal government; and (2) waive related cost sharing requirements. (Sec. 721) Limits funding for: (1) the farmland protection program; (2) the grassland reserve program; (3) the environmental quality incentives program; (4) the wildlife habitat incentive program; (5) the voluntary public access program; (6) the agricultural management assistance program; (7) the value-added products grant program; (8) the organics research program; (9) the specialty crop research program; (10) the beginning farmers and ranchers research program; (11) the healthy forest reserve programs; (12) the biorefinery assistance program; (13) the repowering assistance program; (14) the rural energy for America program; (15) the specialty crops block grant program; (16) programs to encourage exportation and domestic consumption of agricultural products; and (17) the fresh fruit and vegetable in school program until October 1, 2009. Limits the use of unobligated CCC funding for FY2007 specified dam rehabilitation projects and prohibits CCC funding for FY2009 for such projects. (Sec. 722) Appropriates funds to the National Center for Natural Products Research for construction or renovation to carry out the research objectives of the natural products research grant issued by the FDA. (Sec. 723) Appropriates funds for construction of an agriculture pest facility in Hawaii. (Sec. 724) Appropriates funds to the Farm Service Agency for a pilot program to demonstrate the use of new technologies that increase the growth rate of reforested hardwood trees on private non-industrial forests lands on the Gulf of Mexico coast that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. (Sec. 725) Considers as rural areas until receipt of the 2010 decennial Census: (1) Healdsburg, California, Havelock, North Carolina, and Newton, North Carolina, for the purposes of eligibility for rural water and waste disposal loans and grants; and (2) the County of Nueces, Texas, for the purposes of financing a beef processing facility under the business and industry loan guarantee program. (Sec. 726) Appropriates funding for the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows and Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellows. (Sec. 727) Appropriates funds for grants to: (1) the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection; and (2) the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Foods, and Markets. (Sec. 728) Directs the Natural Resources Conservation Service to provide financial and technical assistance through the Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations program for: (1) the Pocasset River Floodplain Management Project Rhode Island; (2) the East Locust Creek Watershed Plan Revision in Missouri; (3) the Little Otter Creek Watershed project in Missouri; (4) the Churchill Woods Dam Removal project in DuPage County, Illinois; and (5) the Dunloup Creek Watershed Project in Fayette and Raleigh Counties, West Virginia. (Sec. 729) Amends the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act regarding the program for at-risk school children to: (1) make Vermont a program participant; and (2) increase the total number of program states from eight to nine. (Sec. 730) Amends the the Delta Regional Authority Act of 2000 to repeal the annual audit requirement for the Delta Regional Authority. (Sec. 731) Directs the Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service to provide funds to settle the claims associated with the Houlka Watershed Project. (Sec. 732) Revises matching grant provisions for certain agricultural research grants under the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998. (Sec. 734) Amends the the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to make commercial fishing enterprises owned or operated by a geographically disadvantaged farmer or rancher eligible for operating loans. (Sec. 735) Exempts the owner or operator of a commercial truck from payment of any agricultural quarantine and inspection user fee. Defines "commercial truck" as a commercial truck that: (1) originates in Alaska and reenters U.S. customs territory directly from Canada; or (2) originates in U.S. customs territory (other than Alaska) and transits through Canadian customs territory directly before entering Alaska. States that the cargo area of any commercial truck carrying an agricultural product shall remain sealed during transit through Canada. (Sec. 736) Prohibits the importation into the United States of any ruminant or swine, or any fresh (including chilled or frozen) meat or product of any ruminant or swine, that is born, raised, or slaughtered in Argentina until the Secretary certifies to Congress that every region of Argentina is free of foot and mouth disease without vaccination. (Sec. 737) Amends the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to promulgate regulations authorizing (by general license) travel to, from, or within Cuba for the marketing and sale of agricultural and medical goods.