Title 7, AgricultureRelease 119-102

§2105 Permissive Terms and Conditions in Orders

Title 7 › CHAPTER 53 — COTTON RESEARCH AND PROMOTION › § 2105

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Orders under this chapter may include only certain kinds of rules. They can set up and pay for advertising and sales-promotion plans for cotton that aim to increase general demand, but they cannot promote a private brand if the Secretary of Agriculture finds that would unfairly favor or hurt others, and they cannot use false claims about cotton or about competing products. They can fund research and development on growing, ginning, processing, distributing, or using cotton to improve marketing and use. They can require handlers (those who handle cotton) to keep records and file reports for the Cotton Board and the Secretary. Information collected must be kept confidential by USDA and the Cotton Board and may be released only in a lawsuit or administrative hearing the Secretary starts or requests, or in which the United States is a party and the matter involves the order. Aggregate reports that do not identify anyone may be published, and the Secretary may publish the name of anyone who violates an order and say which rule was broken. Any USDA or Cotton Board officer or employee who breaks this secrecy rule can be fined up to $1,000, jailed up to one year, or both, and removed from office. Orders may also include other incidental terms that are needed to carry out these rules.

Full Legal Text

Title 7, §2105

Agriculture, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Orders issued pursuant to this chapter shall contain one or more of the following terms and conditions, and except as provided in section 2106 of this title, no others.
(a)Providing for the establishment, issuance, effectuation, and administration of appropriate plans or projects for the advertising and sales promotion of cotton and its products and for the disbursement of necessary funds for such purposes: Provided, however, That any such plan or project shall be directed toward increasing the general demand for cotton or its products but no reference to a private brand or trade name shall be made if the Secretary determines that such reference will result in undue discrimination against the cotton products of other persons: And provided further, That no such advertising or sales promotion programs shall make use of false or unwarranted claims in behalf of cotton or its products or false or unwarranted statements with respect to the quality, value, or use of any competing product.
(b)Providing for establishing and carrying on research and development projects and studies with respect to the production, ginning, processing, distribution, or utilization of cotton and its products, to the end that the marketing and utilization of cotton may be encouraged, expanded, improved, or made more efficient, and for the disbursement of necessary funds for such purposes.
(c)Providing that handlers or any class of handlers maintain and make available for inspection such books and records as may be required by the order and for the filing of reports by such handlers at the times, in the manner, and having the content prescribed by the order, to the end that information and data shall be made available to the Cotton Board and to the Secretary which is appropriate or necessary to the effectuation, administration, or enforcement of this chapter or of any order or regulation issued pursuant to this chapter: Provided, however, That all information so obtained shall be kept confidential by all officers and employees of the Department of Agriculture and of the Cotton Board, and only such information so furnished or acquired as the Secretary deems relevant shall be disclosed by them, and then only in a suit or administrative hearing brought at the direction, or upon the request, of the Secretary of Agriculture, or to which he or any officer of the United States is a party, and involving the order with reference to which the information so to be disclosed was furnished or acquired. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to prohibit (1) the issuance of general statements based upon the reports of a number of handlers subject to an order, 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. Any such officer or employee 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 to both, and shall be removed from office.
(d)Terms and conditions incidental to and not inconsistent with the terms and conditions specified in this chapter and necessary to effectuate the other provisions of such order.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

7 U.S.C. § 2105

Title 7, Agriculture

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102