Appropriations bill FY2006, Agriculture

Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 - Title I: Agricultural Programs - Appropriates FY2006 funds for the following Department of Agriculture (Department) programs and services: (1) Office of the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary); (2) executive operations; (3) National Appeals Division; (4) Office of Budget and Program Analysis; (5) Homeland Security Staff; (6) Office of the Chief Information Officer; (7) Common Computing Environment; (8) Office of the Chief Financial Officer; (9) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights; (10) Office of Civil Rights; (11) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration; (12) agriculture buildings and facilities and rental payments; (13) hazardous materials management; (14) departmental administration; (15) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations; (16) Office of Communications; (17) Office of the Inspector General; (18) Office of the General Counsel; (19) Office of the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics; (20) Economic Research Service; (21) National Agricultural Statistics Service; (22) Agricultural Research Service; (23) Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service; (24) Native American Institutions Endowment Fund; (25) outreach for socially disadvantaged farmers; (26) Office of the Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs; (27) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; (28) Agricultural Marketing Service; (29) Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration; (30) Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety; (31) Food Safety and Inspection Service; (32) Office of the Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services; (33) Farm Service Agency; (34) Risk Management Agency; (35) Federal Crop Insurance Corporation Fund; and (36) 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 Community Advancement Program; (3) rural development salaries and expenses; (4) Rural Housing Service; (5) Rural Business-Cooperative Service; and (6) 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 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); (2) Commodity Futures Trading Commission; and (3) 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. 709) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used to pay indirect costs charged against competitive agricultural research, education, or extension grant awards issued by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service that exceed 20% of total federal funds provided under each award.

(Sec. 713) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used for the Safe Meat and Poultry Inspection Panel.

(Sec. 720) Prohibits funds from being used to relocate a State Rural Development office until cost and operation effectiveness have been determined.

(Sec. 721) Makes additional appropriations for Bill Emerson and Mickey Leland Hunger Fellowships.

(Sec. 722) Provides that any balances and recoveries available to carry out title III of P.L. 480 may be used to carry out title II of such Act.

(Sec. 723) Amends the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to increase obligated funding for the national sheep industry improvement center revolving fund.

(Sec. 724) Directs The Secretary to evaluate and report on any impacts of the decision in Harvey v. Veneman, 396 F.3d 28 (1st Cir. Me. 2005), including determinations: (1) on whether restoring the National Organic Program would adversely affect organic farmers, organic food processors, and consumers; (2) regarding the use of synthetic ingredients in processing and handling; (3) regarding expedited petitions for commercially unavailable agricultural commodities and products; and (4) regarding the use of crops and forage from land included in the organic system plan of dairy farms in their third year of organic management.

(Sec. 725) Obligates specified amounts of agricultural commodities to assist foreign countries mitigate the effects of HIV and AIDS, particularly for individuals caring for orphaned children.

(Sec. 726) Directs the Natural Resources Conservation Service to provide financial and technical assistance through the watershed and flood prevention operations program to: (1) the Kane County, Illinois, Indian Creek watershed flood prevention project; (2) the Hickory Creek Special Drainage District, Bureau County, Illinois; (3) the Muskingam River Watershed, Mohican River, Jerome and Muddy Fork, Ohio, for obstruction removal projects; (4) the Little Red River irrigation project, Arkansas; (5) the Matanuska River erosion control project in Alaska; (6) the Little Otter Creek project in Missouri; (7) the Manoa Watershed project in Hawaii; (8) the West Tarkio project in Iowa; (9) the Steeple Run and West Branch DuPage River watershed projects in DuPage County, Illinois; (10) the Coal Creek project in Utah; and (11) the East Locust Creek watershed plan revision in Missouri.

Directs the Service to provide financial and technical assistance through the conservation operations program for the Utah Conservation Initiative for completion of the American Fork water quality and habitat restoration project in Utah.

(Sec. 727) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being transferred to any federal entity unless authorized by an appropriations Act.

(Sec. 728) Authorizes the Secretary to use up to 22% of competitive research funds under this Act for a competitive grants program similar to the initiative for future agriculture and food systems.

(Sec. 729) Prohibits funds from being used to carry out Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC)-funded rehabilitation of certain dams.

(Sec. 730) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used to close or relocate the FDA Division of Pharmaceutical Analysis in Saint Louis, Missouri, outside the city or county limits.

(Sec. 731) Prohibits funds from being used to carry out the rural strategic investment program.

(Sec. 732) Authorizes the Department to use any unobligated salaries and expense funds to reimburse the Office of General Counsel for representing its agencies and offices in employee complaints before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, or the Merit Systems Protection Board.

(Sec. 733) Prohibits funds from being used to carry out the rural firefighters and emergency personnel grant program.

(Sec. 734) Limits wetlands reserve program enrollment acreage for 2006.

(Sec. 735) Limits fund use for the environmental quality incentives program.

(Sec. 736) Prohibits funds from being used for renewable energy system and energy efficiency improvements assistance.

(Sec. 737) Limits fund use for access to broadband telecommunications in rural areas.

(Sec. 738) Limits funds made available in FY2006 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. 739) Prohibits funds from being used to carry out the value-added market development grant program.

(Sec. 740) Directs the Secretary, with lender consent, to structure the annual fee payment schedule for rural electrification and telephone bond and loan guarantees so as not to exceed an average of 30 basis points per year for the term of the loan in order to ensure fund availability to pay related subsidy costs.

(Sec. 741) Limits fund use for the conservation security program.

(Sec. 742) Limits fund use for the grazing, wildlife habitat incentive, source water protection, and Great Lakes Basin programs.

(Sec. 743) Rescinds specified unobligated funds in the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children (WIC) reserve account.

(Sec. 744) Limits fund use for the farmland protection program.

(Sec. 745) Prohibits, with a FY2005 exception, fund use for the rural business investment program.

(Sec. 746) Prohibits the use of funds under this Act in violation of the Travel and Transportation Reform Act of 1998.

(Sec. 747) Limits fund use for the ground and surface water conservation program.

(Sec. 748) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used to revise a proposed rule (July 8, 2003) respecting cost-sharing for animal and plant health emergency programs of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

(Sec. 749) Authorizes the Secretary to enter into cooperative aircraft lease agreements under the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services.

(Sec. 750) Limits funds for the bioenergy program.

(Sec. 751) Authorizes Department agencies and offices to use available discretionary funds to prepare for final employment discrimination decisions.

(Sec. 752) Requires that funds made available in the current fiscal year be used to cover only current fiscal year obligations for the following Food Security Act of 1985 programs: (1) ground and surface water conservation program; (2) conservation reserve program; (3) wetlands reserve program; (4) conservation security program; (5) farmland protection program; (6) grassland reserve program; (7) environmental quality incentives program; and (8) wildlife habitat incentives program.

(Sec. 753) Appropriates funds to the Denali Commission to address solid waste disposal problems which threaten to contaminate rural drinking water supplies.

(Sec. 754) Provides that: (1) Palmer, Alaska, shall be eligible for a water and waste disposal grant of not more than 75% of the cost of providing water and sewer service to the proposed hospital in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, and (2) the Alaska Department of Community and Economic Development shall be allowed to pass the grant funds through to the local government entity that will provide water and sewer service to the hospital.

Provides that the construction projects known as the Tri-Valley Community Center addition in Healy, Alaska, the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (to be designated an "essential community facility") in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Allied Health Learning Center skill labs/classrooms shall be eligible for community facilities grants in amounts that are equal to not more than 75% of the total facility costs.

Provides, in the case of a high cost isolated rural area in Alaska that is not connected to a road system, that the maximum level for the single family housing assistance shall be 150% of the median household income level in the nonmetropolitan areas of the state and 115% of all other eligible areas of the state.

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. 755) Appropriates funds for the Ohio Livestock Expo Center, Springfield, Ohio.

(Sec. 756) Authorizes community facility program borrowers and grantees to enter into service contracts with not-for-profit third parties.

(Sec. 757) Limits fund use for the agricultural management assistance program.

(Sec. 758) 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. 759) Limits fund use for the biomass research and development program.

(Sec. 760) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used to make certain previously-enrolled land planted to hardwood trees ineligible for the conservation reserve program.

(Sec. 761) Authorizes the Secretary to sell the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory, and the Cotton Research Center, Phoenix, Arizona, and use the proceeds through September 30, 2007, to replace such facilities and to improve other Department facilities.

(Sec. 762) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used to require rural status recertification for rural electrification and telecommunication loan program borrowers.

(Sec. 763) Authorizes the Secretary to use any unobligated carryover funds (with an exception) from any Rural Utilities Service program to carry out 911 access improvements.

(Sec. 764) Appropriates funds for the Alaska dairy industry.

(Sec. 765) Considers until receipt of the 2010 Census: (1) Bridgeton, New Jersey, Kinston, North Carolina, and Portsmouth, Ohio, as rural areas for purposes of Rural Housing Service community facilities program loans and grants; (2) the Township of Bloomington, Illinois, (including individuals and entities with projects within the Township) eligible for Rural Housing Service community facilities programs loans and grants; (3) Lone Grove, Oklahoma, (including individuals and entities with projects within the city) eligible for Rural Housing Service community facilities program loans and grants; (4) Butte/Silverbow, Montana, rural areas for purposes of eligibility for Rural Utilities Service water and waste water loans and grants and Rural Housing Service community facilities program loans and grants; (5) Cleburne County, Arkansas, rural areas for purposes of eligibility of Rural Utilities Service water and waste water loans and grants; (6) the designated Census track areas for the Upper Kanawha Valley Enterprise Community, West Virginia, rural areas for purposes of eligibility for rural empowerment zones and enterprise community programs in the rural development mission area; (7) the Municipality of Carolina, Puerto Rico, as meeting the eligibility requirements for Rural Utilities Service water and waste water loans and grants; (8) the Municipalities of Vega Baja, Manati, Guayama, Fajardo, Humacao, and Naguabo, Puerto Rico, (including individuals and entities with projects within the Municipalities) eligible for Rural Community Advancement Program loans and grants and intermediate relending programs; (9) Hidalgo, Texas as a rural area for the purpose of the Rural Business-Cooperative Service rural business enterprise grant program; (10) Elgin, Oklahoma (including individuals and entities with projects within the city) eligible for Rural Utilities Service water and waste water loans and grants; and (11) Lodi, California, Atchison, Kansas, and Belle Glade, Florida as rural areas for the purposes of the Rural Utilities Service water and waste water loans and grants.

(Sec. 766) Appropriates funds for: (1) the Alaska Village Initiatives for administering a private lands wildlife management program in Alaska; and (2) the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives for pilot Wisconsin-Minnesota health care cooperative purchasing alliances.

(Sec. 768) Makes Burlington and Camden counties, New Jersey, eligible for FY2006 rural community advancement program loans and grants at FY2005 levels.

(Sec. 769) Authorizes the reallocation and audit use of certain unused funds for audits under the child and adult care food program.

(Sec. 770) Authorizes and directs the Secretary to quitclaim to Elkhart, Kansas, all rights, title and interests to a specified tract of land in Morton County, Kansas.

(Sec. 771) Appropriates funds for the healthy forests reserve program.

(Sec. 772) Prohibits fund use under this Act by any executive branch entity to produce a prepackaged news story for U.S. broadcast or distribution unless it contains audio or text notice that it was produced or funded by such executive entity.

(Sec. 773) Appropriates additional funds for specialty crop block grants, of which up to 5% may be used for administrative expenses.

(Sec. 774) Amends the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 to authorize the borrower of a loan made by the Federal Financing Bank and guaranteed under this Act to request an extension of the outstanding principal balance's maturity (including guarantee) or any loan advance. States that extensions shall: (1) not be granted without feasibility and security determinations; (2) not be granted if the principal balance extended exceeds the appraised value of the generating plant or transmission line; (3) not result in a final maturity greater than 55 years from the time of original disbursement and shall not result in a final maturity greater than a plant's useful life; and (4) not be granted more than once per loan advance. Provides for a borrower fee which shall be credited to the rural electrification and telecommunications loans program account.

(Sec. 775) Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to relinquish to Arkansas all or part of the lands and properties encompassing the Jefferson Labs campus (the National Center for Toxicological Research and the Arkansas Regional Laboratory), Arkansas, that are under the Secretary's supervision.

(Sec. 776) Amends the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 to direct that certain funds for school nutrition technical assistance be transferred to the Secretary on October 1, 2005 (currently on July 1, 2006).

(Sec. 777) Amends the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to revise the definition of an "eligible state" for simplified summer food program purposes.

(Sec. 778) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used to retire more than 5% of rural telephone bank class A stock, except in the event of the bank's liquidation or dissolution in FY2006, or to maintain any account or subaccount within the bank's accounting records whose creation has not been authorized by statute.

(Sec. 779) Appropriates funds to carry out elementary and secondary school fresh fruit and vegetable programs in Utah, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut, and Idaho.

(Sec. 780) Amends the Federal Crop Insurance Act to permit data from similar crops to be used in obtaining crop insurance coverage agreements.

(Sec. 781) Authorizes the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board during FY2006 to expend funds for any activity to improve the environment and public health. Directs the Secretary to review such expenditures and include the information in the 2007 dairy promotion program report.

(Sec. 782) Designates the federal facility located at the South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station, Poplarville, Mississippi, as the "Thad Cochran Southern Horticultural Laboratory."

(Sec. 783) Directs the Secretary to convey without consideration the Western Cotton Research Laboratory, 4135 East Broadway Road, Phoenix, Arizona, to the Arizona Cotton Growers Association and Supima.

(Sec. 784) Directs the Secretary to include horses and deer within a livestock assistance, compensation, or feed program.

Amends the Agricultural Act of 1949 to include horses and deer (eliminates equines used for food or food production) under the emergency livestock feed assistance program.

Amends the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001 to make losses to producers of deer, elk, reindeer, bison, and horses eligible for assistance under such Act.

Amends the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 to include horses and deer under the livestock assistance provisions of such Act.

Amends the Agricultural Assistance Act of 2003 to include horses and deer under the livestock disaster assistance provisions of such Act.

Limits the applicability of the amendments made by this section to losses resulting from a disaster occurring on or after July 28, 2005.

(Sec. 785) States that specified conservation amounts for the Plant Materials Center, Fallon, Nevada, shall remain available until expended.

(Sec. 786) Prohibits, without specific congressional authorization, funds made available by this Act from being used to study, or enter into a contract with, a private party for competitive sourcing activities relating to rural development or farm loan programs.

(Sec. 787) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used to pay administrative costs of a state that authorizes any new for-profit vendor to transact food instruments under WIC if it is expected that more than 50% of the vendor's annual food sale revenues will be derived from supplemental food items obtained with WIC food instruments (except that the Secretary may approve such vendor's authorization if necessary to assure participant access to program benefits).

(Sec. 788) Rescinds specified unobligated amounts under the the Act of August 24, 1935.

(Sec. 789) Prohibits the obligation or expenditure of funds under this Act from being used to require a recipient of certain rural housing for domestic farm labor grants funded in response to Hurricane Andrew to pay the United States any interest earned with respect to such grants if the funds are expended by the grantee to provide such housing within 18 months of the date of enactment of this section.

(Sec. 790) Appropriates funds for: (1) the University of Nevada at Reno, Nevada; (2) the Ohio Center for Farmland Policy Innovation at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; (3) Utah State University for a farming and dairy training initiative; (4) the Nueces County, Texas Regional Fairground; and (5) administrative support for a world hunger organization. Stipulates that none of the funds may be used for a monetary award to an individual.

(Sec. 791) Appropriates funds to establish a demonstration relending program for housing construction and rehabilitation for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. (States that the loan rate shall be 1%.)

(Sec. 792) Amends the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to extend country of origin labeling provisions for a covered commodity through September 30, 2008.

(Sec. 793) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used for the 2007 reinsurance year to implement specified provider-initiated federal crop insurance premium reductions.

(Sec. 794) Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used to inspect horses under the Meat Inspection Act or under certain Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 guidelines.

(Sec. 795) Prohibits, with specified exceptions, funds made available by this Act from being used to: (1) grant a waiver of a financial conflict of interest requirement under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act for any voting member of an FDA advisory committee or panel; or (2) make a certification that the need for an individual's services outweighs the potential for a conflict of interest for any such voting member.

Prohibits funds made available by this Act from being used to make a new appointment to an FDA advisory committee or panel unless the Commissioner of Food and Drugs reports to the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services respecting efforts made to identify appointees with minimal or no potential conflicts of interest.

(Sec. 796) Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to exempt from specified provisions providing criminal penalties for bringing in and harboring certain aliens a bona fide nonprofit, religious organization in the United States (or its agents or officers) that encourages, invites, calls, allows, or enables an alien who is present in the United States to serve as a volunteer minister or missionary for such organization in the United States, provided the minister or missionary has been a member of the denomination for at least one year. (Specifies that such exemption shall not permit the organization to encourage or induce an alien to come to, or enter, the United States.)

(Sec. 797) Amends the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 to: (1) authorize the Secretary to develop emergency procedures for designating agricultural products that are commercially unavailable in organic form for placement on the National List (approved and prohibited substances for organic production and handling standards) for up to 12 months; and (2) permit milk or dairy products to be labeled as organically produced if crops and forage from land included in the organic system plan of a dairy farm that is in the third year of organic management are consumed by the dairy animals during the 12- month period immediately prior to such products' sale.

(Sec. 798) Amends the Federal Meat Inspection Act to replace references to "cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, and other equines'' with a reference to "amenable species."

Defines "amenable species" as: (1) those species subject to the provisions of this Act on the day before the date of the enactment of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006; and (2) any additional livestock species that the Secretary considers appropriate.

(Sec. 799) Amends the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006 to: (1) eliminate the "available until expenditure" reference respecting appropriations for the National Park Service-construction; (2) permit the Blue Ridge Parkway Regional Destination Visitor Center to use procurements for the full scope of the facility; (3) reduce appropriations for the National Park Service-land acquisition and state assistance; (4) reduce appropriations for the Department of the Interior salaries; (5) obligate funds under the Environmental Protection Agency-state and tribal assistance grants for the Haleyville, Alabama, North Industrial Area Water Storage Tank project; (6) under the Environmental Protection Agency-state and tribal assistance heading of the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2002, reduce funds for Florence, Montana, obligate funds for Sheridan, Montana, for water system improvements, obligate funds for Bozeman, Montana, for the Hyalite Waterline and Intake, and obligate funds for Meagher County/Martinsdale Water and Sewer District, Montana, for Martinsdale water system improvements; and (7) amend the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005 to redesignate the "Gaylord A. Nelson National Wilderness" as the "Gaylord A. Nelson Wilderness."