
From the U.S. Code Online via GPO Access
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[Laws in effect as of January 2, 2001]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 2, 2001 and January 28, 2002]
[CITE: 7USC4504]

 
                          TITLE 7--AGRICULTURE
 
                CHAPTER 76--DAIRY RESEARCH AND PROMOTION
 
                  SUBCHAPTER I--DAIRY PROMOTION PROGRAM
 
Sec. 4504. Required terms in orders

    Any order issued under this subchapter shall contain terms and 
conditions as follows:
    (a) The order shall provide for the establishment and administration 
of appropriate plans or projects for advertisement and promotion of the 
sale and consumption of dairy products, for research projects related 
thereto, for nutrition education projects, and for the disbursement of 
necessary funds for such purposes. Any such plan or project shall be 
directed toward the sale and marketing or use of dairy products to the 
end that the marketing and use of dairy products may be encouraged, 
expanded, improved, or made more acceptable. No such advertising or 
sales promotion program shall make use of unfair or deceptive acts or 
practices with respect to the quality, value, or use of any competing 
product.
    (b) The order shall provide for the establishment and appointment by 
the Secretary of a National Dairy Promotion and Research Board that 
shall consist of not less than thirty-six members. Members of the Board 
shall be milk producers appointed by the Secretary from nominations 
submitted by eligible organizations certified under section 4505 of this 
title, or, if the Secretary determines that a substantial number of milk 
producers are not members of, or their interests are not represented by, 
any such eligible organization, then from nominations made by such milk 
producers in the manner authorized by the Secretary. In making such 
appointments, the Secretary shall take into account, to the extent 
practicable, the geographical distribution of milk production volume 
throughout the United States. In determining geographic representation, 
whole States shall be considered as a unit. A region may be represented 
by more than one director and a region may be made up of more than one 
State. The term of appointment to the Board shall be for three years 
with no member serving more than two consecutive terms, except that 
initial appointments shall be proportionately for one-year, two-year, 
and three-year terms. The Board shall appoint from its members an 
executive committee whose membership shall equally reflect each of the 
different regions in the United States in which milk is produced. The 
executive committee shall have such duties and powers as are conferred 
upon it by the Board. Board members shall serve without compensation, 
but shall be reimbursed for their reasonable expenses incurred in 
performing their duties as members of the Board including a per diem 
allowance as recommended by the Board and approved by the Secretary.
    (c) The order shall define the powers and duties of the Board that 
shall include only the powers enumerated in this section. These shall 
include, in addition to the powers set forth elsewhere in this section, 
the powers to (1) receive and evaluate, or on its own initiative 
develop, and budget for plans or projects to promote the use of fluid 
milk and dairy products as well as projects for research and nutrition 
education and to make recommendations to the Secretary regarding such 
proposals, (2) administer the order in accordance with its terms and 
provisions, (3) make rules and regulations to effectuate the terms and 
provisions of the order, (4) receive, investigate, and report to the 
Secretary complaints of violations of the order, and (5) recommend to 
the Secretary amendments to the order. The Board shall solicit, among 
others, research proposals that would increase the use of fluid milk and 
dairy products by the military and by persons in developing nations, and 
that would demonstrate the feasibility of converting surplus nonfat dry 
milk to casein for domestic and export use.
    (d) The order shall provide that the Board shall develop and submit 
to the Secretary for approval any promotion, research, or nutrition 
education plan or project and that any such plan or project must be 
approved by the Secretary before becoming effective.
    (e) The order shall require the Board to submit to the Secretary for 
approval budgets on a fiscal period basis of its anticipated expenses 
and disbursements in the administration of the order, including 
projected costs of dairy products promotion and research projects. For 
each of fiscal years 1997 through 2001, the Board's budget may provide 
for the expenditure of revenues available to the Board to develop 
international markets for, and to promote within such markets, the 
consumption of dairy products produced in the United States from milk 
produced in the United States.
    (f) The order shall provide that the Board, with the approval of the 
Secretary, may enter into agreements for the development and conduct of 
the activities authorized under the order as specified in subsection (a) 
of this section and for the payment of the cost thereof with funds 
collected through assessments under the order. Any such agreement shall 
provide that (1) the contracting party shall develop and submit to the 
Board a plan or project together with a budget or budgets that shall 
show estimated costs to be incurred for such plan or project, (2) the 
plan or project shall become effective upon the approval of the 
Secretary, and (3) the contracting party shall keep accurate records of 
all of its transactions, account for funds received and expended, and 
make periodic reports to the Board of activities conducted, and such 
other reports as the Secretary or the Board may require.
    (g) The order shall provide that each person making payment to a 
producer for milk produced in the United States and purchased from the 
producer shall, in the manner as prescribed by the order, collect an 
assessment based upon the number of hundredweights of milk for 
commercial use handled for the account of the producer and remit the 
assessment to the Board. The assessment shall be used for payment of the 
expenses in administering the order, with provision for a reasonable 
reserve, and shall include those administrative costs incurred by the 
Department after an order has been promulgated under this subchapter. 
The rate of assessment prescribed by the order shall be 15 cents per 
hundredweight of milk for commercial use or the equivalent thereof. A 
milk producer or the producer's cooperative who can establish that the 
producer is participating in active, ongoing qualified State or regional 
dairy product promotion or nutrition education programs intended to 
increase consumption of milk and dairy products generally shall receive 
credit in determining the assessment due from such producer for 
contributions to such programs of up to 10 cents per hundredweight of 
milk marketed or, for the period ending six months after November 29, 
1983, up to the aggregate rate in effect on November 29, 1983, of such 
contributions to such programs (but not to exceed 15 cents per 
hundredweight of milk marketed) if such aggregate rate exceeds 10 cents 
per hundredweight of milk marketed. Any person marketing milk of that 
person's own production directly to consumers shall remit the assessment 
directly to the Board in the manner prescribed by the order.
    (h) The order shall require the Board to (1) maintain such books and 
records (which shall be available to the Secretary for inspection and 
audit) as the Secretary may prescribe, (2) prepare and submit to the 
Secretary, from time to time, such reports as the Secretary may 
prescribe, and (3) account for the receipt and disbursement of all funds 
entrusted to it.
    (i) The order shall provide that the Board, with the approval of the 
Secretary, may invest, pending disbursement under a plan or project, 
funds collected through assessments authorized under this subchapter 
only in obligations of the United States or any agency thereof, in 
general obligations of any State or any political subdivision thereof, 
in any interest-bearing account or certificate of deposit of a bank that 
is a member of the Federal Reserve System, or in obligations fully 
guaranteed as to principal and interest by the United States.
    (j) The order shall prohibit any funds collected by the Board under 
the order from being used in any manner for the purpose of influencing 
governmental policy or action except as provided by subsection (c)(5) of 
this section.
    (k) The order shall require that each person receiving milk from 
farmers for commercial use, and any person marketing milk of that 
person's own production directly to consumers, maintain and make 
available for inspection such books and records as may be required by 
the order and file reports at the time, in the manner, and having the 
content prescribed by the order. Such information shall be made 
available to the Secretary as is appropriate to the administration or 
enforcement of this subchapter, or any order or regulation issued under 
this subchapter. All information so obtained shall be kept confidential 
by all officers and employees of the Department, and only such 
information so obtained as the Secretary deems relevant may be disclosed 
by them and then only in a suit or administrative hearing brought at the 
request of the Secretary, or to which the Secretary or any officer of 
the United States is a party, and involving the order with reference to 
which the information to be disclosed was obtained. Nothing in this 
subsection may be deemed to prohibit (1) the issuance of general 
statements, based upon the reports, of the number of persons subject to 
an order or statistical data collected therefrom, which statements do 
not identify the information furnished by any person, or (2) the 
publication, by direction of the Secretary, of the name of any person 
violating any order, together with a statement of the particular 
provisions of the order violated by such person. No information obtained 
under the authority of this subchapter may be made available to any 
agency or officer of the Federal Government for any purpose other than 
the implementation of this subchapter and any investigatory or 
enforcement action necessary for the implementation of this subchapter. 
Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall, upon 
conviction, be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000, or to 
imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, and, if an officer or 
employee of the Board or the Department, shall be removed from office.
    (l) The order shall provide terms and conditions, not inconsistent 
with the provisions of this subchapter, as necessary to effectuate the 
provisions of the order.

(Pub. L. 98-180, title I, Sec. 113, Nov. 29, 1983, 97 Stat. 1137; Pub. 
L. 104-127, title I, Sec. 152, Apr. 4, 1996, 110 Stat. 922.)


                               Amendments

    1996--Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 104-127 inserted at end ``For each of 
fiscal years 1997 through 2001, the Board's budget may provide for the 
expenditure of revenues available to the Board to develop international 
markets for, and to promote within such markets, the consumption of 
dairy products produced in the United States from milk produced in the 
United States.''

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in sections 4502, 4505, 6407, 6409 of 
this title.
