HR 479 IH

To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to make emergency loans under the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to greenhouse farmers whose energy costs have escalated sharply.

To authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to make emergency loans under the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to greenhouse farmers whose energy costs have escalated sharply.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. EMERGENCY LOANS FOR GREENHOUSE FARMERS WHOSE ENERGY COSTS HAVE ESCALATED SHARPLY.

Section 321(a) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1961(a)) is amended--

(1) in the 1st sentence, by inserting `, or that the applicants' greenhouse farming operations have been substantially affected by an increase in energy prices of at least 25 percent in any 12-month period' before `: Provided,';

(2) in the 2nd sentence, by inserting `, or that conduct greenhouse farming operations in any county contiguous to a county where the Secretary has found that greenhouse farming operations have been substantially affected by an increase in energy prices of at least 25 percent in any 12-month period' before the period;

(3) in the 3rd sentence--

(A) by inserting `or (in the case of a greenhouse farming operation), by an increase in energy prices,' after `a natural disaster'; and

(B) by inserting `, or that greenhouse farming operations have been substantially affected by such increase in energy prices,' after `by such natural disaster'; and

(4) by adding at the end the following: `In this subsection, the term `greenhouse farming' means the production of an agricultural commodity in a greenhouse for a commercial purpose.'.