Title 7AgricultureRelease 119-73

§2108 Suspension and termination of orders

Title 7 › Chapter CHAPTER 53— - COTTON RESEARCH AND PROMOTION › § 2108

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary must stop or pause any order, or part of an order, if it blocks or fails to carry out the law’s goals. The Secretary can hold a vote (a referendum) any time, and must hold one if producers and importers who together equal at least 10 percent of those who voted in the last referendum ask for it. No more than 20 percent of those requests can come from producers in one State or from importers. If a majority of those voting in the referendum — and those voters, in a period the Secretary picks, account for more than 50 percent of the cotton produced and imported by the voters — approve ending or pausing the order, the Secretary must end or pause it at the end of the marketing year. Ending or pausing an order is not treated as creating a new order under the law.

Full Legal Text

Title 7, §2108

Agriculture — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Secretary shall, whenever he finds that any order issued under this chapter, or any provision thereof, obstructs or does not tend to effectuate the declared policy of this chapter, terminate or suspend the operation of such order or such provision thereof.
(b)The Secretary may conduct a referendum at any time, and shall hold a referendum on request of a number of producers and importers (if subject to the order) equivalent to at least 10 percent of those persons voting in the most recent referendum, to determine whether cotton producers and importers subject to the order favor the termination or suspension of the order, except that in counting such requests for a referendum, not more than 20 percent of such requests may be from producers from any one State or importers of cotton (if subject to the order). The Secretary shall suspend or terminate the order at the end of the marketing year, as defined in the order, whenever the Secretary determines suspension or termination of the order is approved by a majority of producers and importers (subject to the order) voting in the referendum who, during a representative period determined by the Secretary, have been engaged in the production and importation of cotton and who produced and imported more than 50 percent of the volume of cotton produced and imported by those voting in the referendum.
(c)The termination or suspension of any order, or any provision thereof, shall not be considered an order within the meaning of this chapter.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1990—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 101–624 amended subsec. (b) generally. Prior to amendment, subsec. (b) read as follows: “The Secretary may conduct a referendum at any time, and shall hold a referendum on request of 10 per centum or more of the number of cotton producers voting in the referendum approving the order, to determine whether cotton producers favor the termination or suspension of the order, and he shall suspend or terminate such order at the end of the marketing year, as defined in the order, whenever he determines that suspension or termination of the order is approved or favored by a majority of the producers of cotton voting in such referendum who, during a representative period determined by the Secretary, have been engaged in the production of cotton, and who produced more than 50 per centum of the volume of the cotton produced by the cotton producers voting in the referendum.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

7 U.S.C. § 2108

Title 7Agriculture

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73