§2497a Agricultural Disaster Relief Trust Fund

Summary

Creates a trust fund in the U.S. Treasury called the Agricultural Disaster Relief Trust Fund. It gets money equal to 3.08 percent of the customs duties paid into the Treasury general fund during fiscal years 2008 through 2011 on goods entered or withdrawn for consumption under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The Treasury must move those amounts into the trust at least monthly using its best estimates and later correct any over‑ or under‑transfers. No more money may be added to the trust after money is spent from it in a way the law does not allow, and whether a spending is allowed must be decided without relying on other outside laws. The Secretary of the Treasury is the trustee and must send Congress a yearly report on the fund’s past year and the next 4 fiscal years. Money not needed for current withdrawals must be invested only in U.S. interest‑bearing obligations, which can be bought or sold at market or issue price, and any interest or sale proceeds go back into the trust. The trust can pay obligations owed by the United States under section 2497 of title 19 and section 1531 of title 7 as they were on the date the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 was enacted. The trust may borrow repayable advances as needed; those advances must be repaid with interest to the general fund when the Secretary finds funds are available. Interest on advances is set to the current average market yield on comparable U.S. marketable securities (as of the end of the month before the advance) and is compounded yearly.