§7213 Amounts Available for Contract Payments

Summary

The Secretary must, as much as possible, spend fixed sums each fiscal year to meet contract obligations: $5,570,000,000 for 1996; $5,385,000,000 for 1997; $5,800,000,000 for 1998; $5,603,000,000 for 1999; $5,130,000,000 for 2000; $4,130,000,000 for 2001; and $4,008,000,000 for 2002. Those yearly amounts are split among seven commodities: wheat 26.26 percent, corn 46.22 percent, grain sorghum 5.11 percent, barley 2.16 percent, oats 0.15 percent, upland cotton 11.63 percent, and rice 8.47 percent. For each commodity the Secretary must adjust the allocated amount by adding repayments of deficiency payments required under section 114(a)(2) of the Agricultural Act of 1949, adding refunds of contract payments received in the prior fiscal year under section 7216, and subtracting amounts needed to meet payment rules under sections 103B, 105B, or 107B of the Agricultural Act of 1949 for the 1994 and 1995 crop years. Rice also gets an extra $8,500,000 for each year 1997 through 2002. Any money added because of the two additions above and then paid to owners or producers will not count as a contract payment for purposes of section 7215 or section 1308(1). No person may receive more than $50,000 under that rule. If owners or producers give up contract payments because of the payment limit in section 1308(1), the total amount available for that fiscal year must be reduced by the total of those forgone payments.