§55 Fees and Charges for Cotton Classing and Related Services; Criteria; Disposition of Moneys and Samples

Summary

The Secretary of Agriculture must charge fees for cotton classifier licenses (section 53), for determinations (section 54), and for making and selling cotton standards and copies (sections 56, 57, and 57a). Those fees should, as closely as possible, pay for the full cost of the services and standards, including administrative and supervisory costs, and should account for any money made from selling cotton samples. The Secretary can make rules that cotton samples used for these services become U.S. government property and may be sold, with the money credited to the same account. Those samples are not subject to chapters 1 to 11 of title 40 or to division C (except sections 3302, 3307(e), 3501(b), 3509, 3906, 4710, and 4711) of subtitle I of title 41. Fees, late-payment penalties, proceeds from sample sales, and any interest earned must go to the current appropriation that pays these costs and will stay available without fiscal year limitation to cover expenses under this chapter and section 15b. The Secretary may put those funds in insured or fully collateralized interest-bearing accounts, or the Secretary of the Treasury may invest them in U.S. Government debt instruments. The Secretary must set the price for practical forms that represent the official U.S. cotton standards so the price, as nearly as possible, covers the actual cost to the Department of Agriculture to develop and prepare those forms.