As part of the conference agreement on H.R. 2559, the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000, Congress approved a $7.1 billion farm relief package. The farm relief bill contains a number of features:

Commodity Assistance

• $5.45 billion in market loss payments to farmers, an amount equal to already-scheduled payments for FY 2000;

• $500 million to oilseed producers;
• $59.45 million for Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act(PACA) reserve fund and the inspection reserve;
• $200 million to purchase specialty crops that experienced low prices in the 1998 and 1999 crop years, including apples, black-eyed peas, cherries, citrus, cranberries, onions, melons, peaches, potatoes and others;
• $25 million to compensate growers for losses resulting from plum pox virus, Pierce's disease and canker;
• $47 million to both peanut quota growers and "additional" growers;
• $340 million to tobacco growers;
• Recourse loan for honey producers on the 2000 crop of honey at 85% of the average price of honey during the preceding 5-crop year period;
• Payments to wool producers of $0.20 per pound and mohair producers of $0.40 per pound for the 1999 marketing year; and
• $100 million to producers and first handlers of cottonseed.

 

• $10 million for the Farmland Protection Program and allows nonpoint conservation organizations to hold easements in those states that do not have a state defined farmland protection program; and
• $40 million to provide soil, water and natural resource conservation assistance to farmers in the form of cost share or incentive payments; 

 

• $15 million in FY 2001 to the Consortium for Agricultural Soils Mitigation of Greenhouse gases for carbon cycle research at the national, regional and local levels;
• $3 million in FY 2001 for research on the extraction and purification of proteins from genetically altered tobacco that can be used as a vaccine for cervical cancer;
• Provides a grant to the University of Nebraska for laboratories and equipment for research on soil science and forest health and management;
• $3.5 million to expand research related to livestock production waste streams;
• $5 million in FY 2001 for USDA to review and assess potential problems associated with livestock and poultry waste management systems
• $14 million to USDA for the construction of a corn-based ethanol research pilot plant

 

• $15 million to award competitive grants to eligible producers for the purpose of facilitating greater participation in markets for value-added agricultural commodities;
• Directs USDA to purchase an additional $34 million of food commodities in FY 2000 and another $21 million of food commodities in FY 2001 for distribution to schools participating in the National School Lunch Program;
• Requires USDA to make a loan in the amount of $10 million to the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation;
• $7 million in FY 2001 for pseudorabies vaccination costs incurred by pork producers;
• $6 million in FY 2001 on bovine tuberculosis in Michigan;
• Increases the authorization from $20 million to $30 million for waste and wastewater systems for rural and native villages in Alaska;
• Compensation to producers for the loss of cropland or pastureland due to unusual flooding;
• Authorizes within USDA $49 million for each of fiscal years 2000 through 2005, and provides appropriated for biomass research and development under the general authority of the Secretary of Energy to establish a Biomass Research and Development Initiative; and
• Includes a new "Plant Protection Act" which enhances the authority of USDA to regulate in interstate and foreign commerce the movement of any plant, plant product, biological control organism, or noxious weed.