To amend the environmental quality incentives program of the Department of Agriculture to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to provide assistance to active agricultural producers for the construction of reservoirs as part of their agricultural operations for the storage of water, and for other purposes.

Amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to authorize assistance under the environmental quality incentives program for water reservoir construction to be used for water storage in agricultural operations.

States that the producer: (1) may not be required to use irrigation for a commodity as a precondition for such reservoir assistance; and (2) shall agree to maintain the lands to be served by a reservoir in agricultural production for at least five years after the reservoir's completion.

[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6331 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6331

To amend the environmental quality incentives program of the Department 
  of Agriculture to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to provide 
  assistance to active agricultural producers for the construction of 
reservoirs as part of their agricultural operations for the storage of 
                     water, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 15, 2006

   Mr. Everett (for himself, Mr. Bonner, and Mr. Rogers of Alabama) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                              Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL



To amend the environmental quality incentives program of the Department 
  of Agriculture to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to provide 
  assistance to active agricultural producers for the construction of 
reservoirs as part of their agricultural operations for the storage of 
                     water, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. GROUND AND SURFACE WATER CONSERVATION ASSISTANCE UNDER 
              ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY INCENTIVES PROGRAM.

    (a) Assistance for Construction of Water Reservoirs.--Subsection 
(a)(4) of section 1240I of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 
3839aa-9) is amended by striking ``water banking'' inserting ``the 
construction of reservoirs to be used for water storage in agricultural 
operations, water banking,''.
    (b) Special Rules for Provision of Assistance.--Such section is 
further amended--
            (1) by redesignating subsection (c) as subsection (d); and
            (2) by inserting after subsection (b) the following new 
        subsection:
    ``(c) Special Rules for Assistance for Reservoir Construction.--
            ``(1) Waiver of irrigation requirements.--The Secretary may 
        not require, as a precondition for making cost-sharing or 
        incentive payments available to a producer under this section 
        for the construction of a water reservoir, that the 
        agricultural operations of the producer utilize irrigation in 
        the production of a commodity.
            ``(2) Maximum amount of assistance.--In making cost-sharing 
        or incentive payments to a producer under this section for the 
        construction of a water reservoir, the Secretary may not pay 
        more than 50 percent of the cost of constructing the reservoir.
            ``(3) Considerations of cost-effectiveness.--If the 
        Secretary determines that two or more applications for 
        assistance for the construction of a water reservoir are 
        comparable in achieving the conservation purposes of this 
        section, the Secretary shall assign a higher priority to those 
        applications for reservoir construction projects that would be 
        the most cost-effective in achieving the conservation purposes 
        of this section. In determining the cost-effectiveness of a 
        proposed project, the Secretary shall consider both the cost 
        per square foot acre of water and the cost per acre of 
        irrigated land.
            ``(4) Required use in agricultural operations.--As a 
        condition on the receipt of assistance under this section for 
        the construction of a water reservoir, the producer shall agree 
        to maintain the lands to be served by the reservoir in 
        agricultural production for at least five years after the date 
        of completion of the reservoir.
            ``(5) Repayment.--If the Secretary determines, on the 
        record after an opportunity for a hearing, that a producer has 
        failed to comply with the agreement required by paragraph (4), 
        the Secretary shall require the producer to repay to the 
        Secretary all or a part of the assistance provided for the 
        construction of the reservoir. The repayment amount required 
        shall be based on the severity and duration of the 
        violation.''.
                                 <all>