[H. R. 12037] AN ACT Relating to compacts and agreements among States in which tobacco is produced providing for the control of production of, or commerce in, tobacco in such States, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress of the United States of America hereby consents that any of the States in which tobacco is produced may negotiate a compact or compacts for the purpose of regulating and controlling the production of, or commerce in, any one or more kinds of tobacco therein: Provided, That all State acts authorizing such compact or compacts shall be essentially uniform and in no way conflicting: Provided further, That any compact, compacts, agreement, or agreements negotiated and agreed upon by the States referred to in the Act of the General Assembly of Virginia, approved March 13, 1936 (known as the Tobacco Control Act), or by any other State or States producing any type or types of tobacco referred to in said Act, which is in conformity with said Act and relating to the type or types of tobacco specifically referred to in said Act, shall become effective to the extent and in the manner provided for in said Act without further consent or ratification on the part of the Congress of the United States of America: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be construed as preventing the Congress of the United States of America from hereafter withdrawing its consent to any compact or agreement entered into pursuant to this Act: Provided further, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to grant the consent of Congress to negotiate any compact for regulating or controlling the production of, or commerce in, tobacco for the purpose of fixing the price thereof, or to create or perpetuate monopoly, or to promote regimentation, but such consent shall be limited to compacts for the regulation and control of production of, or commerce in, tobacco in order thereby to enable growers to receive a fair price for such tobacco. SEC. 2. As used in this Act, unless otherwise stated or unless the context or subject matter clearly indicates otherwise "Person" means any individual, partnership, joint-stock company, corporation, or association. "State Act" means any Act of a State legislature authorizing a compact or compacts pursuant to the consent given in this Act. "Commission" means the tobacco commission created by any State Act. "Secretary" means the Secretary of Agriculture of the United States. "Kind of tobacco" means one or more types of tobacco as classified in Service and Regulatory Announcement Numbered 118 of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the United States Depart ment of Agriculture as listed below according to the name or names by which known: Types 11, 12, 13, and 14, known as flue-cured tobacco. Type 31, known as Burley tobacco. Types 21, 22, 23, 24, 35, 36, and 37, known as fire-cured and dark air-cured tobacco. Types 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, and 46, known as cigar-filler tobacco. "Association" means any association of tobacco producers or other persons engaged in the tobacco industry, or both, formed under the laws of any State for the purpose of stabilizing the marketing of tobacco and providing crop protection to producers of tobacco in any State or States. SEC. 3. The Secretary is authorized to make advances from time to time, from the funds hereinafter provided, to the tobacco commission established by the State act of each State which enters into a compact or compacts under the consent given by this Act in such amounts as the Secretary shall determine to be required for the payment of administrative expenses incurred by such commission, and under such terms and conditions with respect to the expenditure thereof as the Secretary shall stipulate: Provided, That each State act creating such commission shall provide for the repayment to the Secretary of such advances from any funds received by the commission from the sale of marketing certificates with respect to tobacco, prior to the use of such funds for any other purpose. SEC. 4. The Secretary shall, upon the request of the Commission of any compacting State, designate such tobacco producers or other persons engaged in the tobacco industry and such officials of the United States Department of Agriculture as he deems advisable to meet with the tobacco commissions for the different States for the purpose of advising in connection with the administration of any compact or compacts entered into pursuant to this Act. SEC. 5. The Secretary, from the funds hereinafter provided, is authorized to make loans for administrative purposes, upon terms and conditions stipulated by him, to such association of tobacco producers as may operate with respect to the 1936 crop in the Georgia Tobacco Belt, in a manner similar to that embodied in State Acts providing for compacts under the consent given in this Act. SEC. 6. The Secretary is hereby authorized, upon the request of the commission of any compacting State, or at the request of any association referred to in section 5, to make available to the commission of any State or to any such association such records and information, whether published or unpublished, and such facilities of the United States Department of Agriculture as the Secretary deems appropriate in aiding such commission or association. SEC. 7. (a) For the purpose of administering this Act there is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary of Agriculture the sum of $300,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for that purpose. (b) Any advances or loans which are repaid to the Secretary by any commission or association pursuant to sections 3 and 5 of this Act shall revert to the general fund of the Treasury of the United States. SEC. 8. All funds available for carrying out this Act shall be available for allotment to the bureaus and offices of the Department of Agriculture and for transfer to such other agencies of the Federal or State Governments as the Secretary may request to cooperate or assist in carrying out this Act. SEC. 9. If, pursuant to this Act, any compact entered into among three or more of the States of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Florida, and Connecticut, becomes effective, or if any association or associations are formed, the membership of which includes at least two-thirds of the producers of cigar-filler tobacco and cigar-binder tobacco in three or more of said States, commerce in cigar-filler tobacco produced in Puerto Rico shall be regulated during the period in which any such compact remains effective or such associations continue to operate, as follows: (a) The Secretary shall determine for each crop year, by calculations from available statistics of the United States Department of Agriculture, the quantity of cigar-filler tobacco produced in the continental United States and Puerto Rico which is likely to be consumed in all countries of the world during such crop year, increased or decreased, as the case may be, by the amount by which the world stocks of cigar-filler tobacco (produced in the continental United States and Puerto Rico) at the beginning of such crop year are less than or greater than the normal stocks of such cigar-filler tobacco, as determined by the Secretary. For the purposes of this section, the Secretary shall specify as a "crop year" such period of twelve months as he deems will facilitate the administration of this section. (b) The Secretary shall determine a marketing quota for Puerto Rico for cigar-filler tobacco for each crop year in which the provisions of this section are operative. Such quota shall be that quantity of cigar-filler tobacco which bears the same proportion (subject to such adjustment, which may be cumulative from one crop year to another, not exceeding 5 per centum of said proportion in any one year, as the Secretary determines is necessary to correct for any abnormal conditions of production during any three normal crop years during the last ten years for trends in production during such crop years and for trends in consumption since such crop years) to the total quantity of cigar-filler tobacco produced in the continental United States and Puerto Rico and required for world consumption (as determined pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section) as the average production of cigar-filler tobacco in Puerto Rico in such crop years bore to the average of the total production of cigar-filler tobacco in the continental United States and Puerto Rico in such crop years. (c) The Secretary shall establish for each farm in Puerto Rico for each crop year a tobacco-marketing quota, giving due consideration to the quantity of cigar-filler tobacco marketed from the crops produced on such farms and by the operator thereof in past years; to the land, labor, and equipment available for production of tobacco on such farm; to the crop-rotation practices on such farm; and to the soil and other physical factors affecting production of tobacco on such farm: Provided. That the total of the marketing quotas established for all farms in Puerto Rico for any crop year shall not exceed the marketing quota for Puerto Rico for such crop year. (d) The marketing quota established for Puerto Rico and the marketing quotas established for farms in Puerto Rico for any crop year pursuant to paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section shall be subject to such uniform adjustment during the crop year, not exceeding 10 per centum of said quotas, as the Secretary shall determine to be necessary to establish and maintain normal world stocks of cigar-filler tobacco produced in the continental United States and Puerto Rico and otherwise to effectuate the purposes of this Act. (e) The Secretary shall, under such terms and conditions and in accordance with such methods as may be established in regulations prescribed by him, issue, to buyers or handlers of tobacco from any farm in Puerto Rico, marketing certificates for an amount of tobacco equal to the marketing quota established for such farm, and, for any tobacco marketed in excess of such quota for such farm, sell, to the buyer or handlers of such excess tobacco, marketing certificates for a charge equal to one-third of the current market value of such tobacco, and the Secretary may require the buyer or handler of such excess tobacco to deduct the charge for marketing certificates from the price or proceeds of or advances on such tobacco. (f) From the proceeds received from the sale of marketing certificates pursuant to paragraph (e) of this section, the Secretary shall make payments to the producers of tobacco on farms in Puerto Rico from which the sales of tobacco, because of weather or diseases or loss by fire affecting the tobacco crops thereon adversely during any crop year, are less than the marketing quotas for such farms for such crop year. Such payments shall be at a rate per pound of such deficit as shall be determined by dividing the funds remaining after deduction of sucn amount as the Secretary estimates to be necessary for the payment of administrative expenses incurred in administering the provisions of this section by the total number of pounds by which the sales of tobacco from all such farms fall below the marketing quotas for such farms. (g) The sale, marketing, purchase, or transportation of any cigarfiller tobacco produced, sold, or marketed in Puerto Rico during any period of time when this section shall be in effect is hereby prohibited unless a marketing certificate has been issued for such tobacco by the Secretary pursuant to the provisions of this Act. SEC. 10. Any receipts by the Secretary under section 9 of this Act shall be held in a separate fund and used by the Secretary for the purpose of paying administrative expenses and expenditures incurred or made in connection with section 9 of this Act. SEC. 11. If any provision of this Act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, shall be held invalid, the validity of the remainder of the Act and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby. SEC. 12. The Secretary shall prescribe such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act. Approved, April 25, 1936. [H. J. Res. 553] JOINT RESOLUTION Extending the time for the Federal Trade Commission to make an investigation and file final report with respect to agricultural income and the financial and economic condition of agricultural producers generally. Whereas the Federal Trade Commission was authorized under the provisions of Public Resolution Numbered 61, Seventy-fourth Congress, first session, approved August 27, 1935, to make an investigation with respect to agricultural income and the financial and economic condition of agricultural producers generally; and Whereas the said Commission was directed to present an interim report to the Congress on January 1, 1936, describing the progress made and the status of its work under said public resolution, and a final report with recommendations for legislation not later than July 1, 1936; and Whereas it appears that the appropriation for conducting this investigation carried in the deficiency appropriation bill failed of passage in the first session of the Seventy-fourth Congress, and was not actually made until February 11, 1936, although the resolution authorizing the investigation was introduced some eighteen months prior to the date specified for the completion of the investigation and report, and was approved August 27, 1935; and Whereas the extensive information called for under the terms of the said public resolution has caused frequent and numerous requests for extensions of time upon the part of persons from whom such information has had to be obtained, such extensions amounting to from one to three months in addition to thirty days' time originally allowed by the Commission; and Whereas it is learned that much of the necessary information cannot be secured by July 1, 1936; and Whereas it appears that it will be possible for the Commission to secure and present much more comprehensive data and to present a much more thorough and accurate study and report upon the same if the time within which it is directed to complete its investigation and to submit its final report thereon with recommendations for legislation be extended: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the Federal Trade Commission be. and it is hereby, authorized and directed to proceed under the public resolution aforesaid and is directed to complete the investigation thereunder and to submit a final report to the Congress with recommendations for legislation not later than October 1, 1936. It is hereby further provided that any unexpended balance of the appropriation of the $150.000 made in the Independent Offices Appropriation Act for the fiscal year 1936 in accordance with the authority contained in Public Resolution Numbered 61. Seventy-fourth Congress, first session, is hereby made available for like purpose to and including October 1, 1936. Approved, May 1, 1936. |