§7216 Violations of Contract

Summary

If an owner or producer breaks the rules listed in section 7211(a), the Secretary must end their contract for every farm they have an interest in. When the contract is ended, the owner or producer loses the right to future contract payments and must pay back any contract money they got during the time of the violation, plus interest set by the Secretary. If the Secretary decides the breach does not deserve ending the contract, the Secretary can instead make the owner or producer either repay part of the payments with interest or accept smaller future payments based on how bad the violation was. If the land was foreclosed and the Secretary finds it fair, the owner or producer may not have to repay amounts received. If they later resume control of the land, the contract duties that were in force at the time of foreclosure apply. The Secretary’s decision here is treated as an adverse decision for purposes of administrative review.