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Title III — Rural Development

S. 679 · 113th Congress · Apr 9, 2013 · Lineage

III Rural Development

Sec. 301 Availability of rural business opportunity grants for local and regional food systems

Section 306(a)(11) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1926(a)(11)) is amended—
(1)
in subparagraph (A)—
(A)
in clause (i), by inserting “domestic and” before “export”;
(B)
in clause (iv), by striking “and” at the end;
(C)
in clause (v)—
(i)
by inserting “domestic and” before “international”; and
(ii)
by striking the period and inserting “; and”; and
(D)
by adding at the end the following:

“(vi) to develop enterprises and business ventures that build sustainable local and regional food systems, including through processing, aggregation, distribution, storage, or marketing businesses in connection with production agriculture.”

(2)
in subparagraph (D), by striking “2008 through 2012” and inserting “2014 through 2018”.

Sec. 302 Clarification on allowed partnerships for certain community facilities grants and loans

(a)
Community facilities grant program— Section 306(a)(19) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1926(a)(19)) is amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:

“(D) Partnerships allowed—An association, unit of general local government, nonprofit corporation, or Indian tribe that receives a grant under this paragraph may partner with philanthropic or for-profit entities in developing specific essential community facilities in rural areas.”

(b)
Loan guarantees for water, wastewater, and essential community facilities loans— Section 306(a)(24) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1926(a)(24)) is amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:

“(C) Partnerships allowed—The recipient of a loan guarantee under this paragraph may partner with philanthropic or for-profit entities in servicing, or providing additional credit with respect to, a loan described in subparagraph (A).”

Sec. 303 Availability of rural business enterprise grants for value-added processing, aggregation, distribution, storage, and marketing in connection with production agriculture

Section 310B of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1932) is amended—
(1)
in subsection (a)(2)—
(A)
in subparagraph (C), by striking “and” at the end;
(B)
in subparagraph (D), by striking the period and inserting “; and”; and
(C)
by adding at the end the following:

“(E) value-added processing, aggregation, distribution, storage, or marketing in connection with production agriculture.”

(2)
in subsection (c)(1)(B)(ii), by inserting “, aggregation, distribution, storage, or marketing” after “processing”.

Sec. 304 Making improvements to business and industry direct and guaranteed loans to benefit producers of local or regionally produced agricultural food products

Section 310B(g) of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (7 U.S.C. 1932(g)) is amended—
(1)
in paragraph (6)(A)—
(A)
in clause (i), by striking “value-added processing” and all that follows through the semicolon and inserting “value-added processing, distribution, aggregation, storage, or marketing of agricultural food products that create new opportunities for agricultural producers;”; and
(B)
in clause (iii), by striking “subsection (a)(2)(A)” and inserting “this subsection”; and
(2)
in paragraph (9)(B)—
(A)
in clause (i), by inserting “in rural or non-rural areas” after “entities”;
(B)
by striking clauses (ii) and (iii) and inserting the following new clauses:

“(ii) Priority—In making or guaranteeing a loan under clause (i), the Secretary shall give priority to projects that will—

“(I) result in increased access to locally or regionally grown food in underserved communities;

“(II) create new market opportunities for local or regional agricultural producers; or

“(III) support strategic economic and community development regional economic development plans on a multijurisdictional basis.

“(iii) Guarantee fee—In guaranteeing a loan under clause (i), the Secretary may waive, reduce, or incorporate into the amount of the guarantee made under such clause, the fee that would otherwise be imposed under paragraph (5) with respect to such guarantee.”

(C)
by redesignating clauses (iv) and (v) as clauses (v) and (vi), respectively;
(D)
by inserting after clause (iii) the following new clause:

“(iv) Outreach—The Secretary shall develop and implement an outreach plan to publicize the availability of loans and loan guarantees under this paragraph, working closely with rural cooperative development centers, credit unions, community development financial institutions, regional economic development authorities, and other financial and economic development entities.”

(E)
in clause (v) (as redesignated by subparagraph (C))—
(i)
in the matter preceding subclause (I), by inserting “, and publish on the internet,” after “Senate”;
(ii)
by redesignating subclauses (I) and (II) as subclauses (II) and (III), respectively;
(iii)
by inserting before subclause (II), the following new subclause:

“(I) summary information on each such project;”

(iv)
in subclause (II) (as redesignated by clause (ii)), by inserting “and agricultural producers” after “communities”; and
(F)
in clause (vi)(I) (as so redesignated), by striking “2012” and inserting “2018”.

Sec. 305 Value-added agricultural product market development grants

(a)
Definitions— Section 231(a) of the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 (7 U.S.C. 1632a(a)(3)) is amended—
(1)
in paragraph (3)—
(A)
in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by inserting “(including networks that operate through food distribution centers that coordinate agricultural production and the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and marketing of locally or regionally produced agricultural products)” after “products”; and
(B)
in subparagraph (A), by striking “a family farm” and inserting “family farms”; and
(2)
in paragraph (5)(A)(v), by inserting “or as part of a mid-tier value chain” before the semicolon.
(b)
Grant program— Section 231(b) of the Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 (7 U.S.C. 1632a(b)) is amended—
(1)
in paragraph (1)—
(A)
in the matter preceding subparagraph (A)—
(i)
by striking “paragraph (7)” and inserting “paragraph (8)”; and
(ii)
by inserting “, using a peer review process,” before “shall”; and
(B)
in subparagraph (A)(i), by inserting “or conducting a feasibility study” after “business plan”;
(2)
by striking paragraph (6) and inserting the following new paragraph:

“(6) Priority—In awarding grants under this subsection, the Secretary shall—

“(A) in the case of grants awarded under paragraph (1)(A), give priority to—

“(i) operators of small- and medium-sized farms and ranches that are structured as family farms; or

“(ii) beginning farmers and ranchers or socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers; and

“(B) in the case of grants awarded under paragraph (1)(B), give priority to projects that, as determined through peer review, best contribute to—

“(i) increasing opportunities for operators of small- and medium-sized farms and ranches that are structured as family farms; or

“(ii) creating opportunities for beginning farmers and ranchers or socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.”

(3)
by redesignating paragraph (7) as paragraph (8);
(4)
by inserting after paragraph (6) the following new paragraph:

“(7) Outreach and technical assistance—The Secretary shall develop and implement an outreach and technical assistance strategy to assist recipients of a grant under this subsection reach and serve underserved States and communities (as determined by the Secretary).”

(5)
in paragraph (8) (as redesignated by paragraph (3))—
(A)
by striking subparagraph (A) and inserting the following new subparagraph:

“(A) Mandatory funding—Of the funds of the Commodity Credit Corporation, the Secretary shall make available to carry out this subsection—

“(i) $15,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2008 through 2013, to remain available until expended; and

“(ii) $20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2014 through 2018, to remain available until expended.”

(B)
in subparagraph (B), by striking “2012” and inserting “2018”; and
(C)
by striking subparagraph (C) and inserting the following new subparagraph:

“(C) Priority Funding

“(i) In general—The Secretary shall, to the maximum extent practicable, reserve not less than two-thirds of the amounts made available for each fiscal year under this paragraph to fund grants with respect to which priority is given under paragraph (6).

“(ii) Reservation of funds for projects to benefit beginning farmers or ranchers, socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers, and mid-tier value chains

“(I) In general—The Secretary shall reserve 10 percent of the amounts made available for each fiscal year under this paragraph to fund projects that benefit beginning farmers or ranchers or socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers.

“(II) Mid-tier value chains—The Secretary shall reserve 10 percent of the amounts made available for each fiscal year under this paragraph to fund applications of eligible entities described in paragraph (1) that propose to develop mid-tier value chains.

“(III) Unobligated amounts—Any amounts in the reserves for a fiscal year established under subclauses (I) and (II) that are not obligated by the date on which the Secretary completes the review process for applications submitted under this section in the fiscal year shall be available to the Secretary to make grants under this subsection to eligible entities in any State, as determined by the Secretary.”