To amend the conservation provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985 to promote the conservation and improvement of the soil, water, and wildlife resources of lands containing muck soils, and for other purposes.

Amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) to provide payments to owners and operators of qualifying muck land (as determined by the Secretary) in agricultural production to conserve and improve such land's soil, water, and wildlife resources.

[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6180 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 6180

 To amend the conservation provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985 
  to promote the conservation and improvement of the soil, water, and 
   wildlife resources of lands containing muck soils, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 22, 2010

Mr. Hall of New York introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                    to the Committee on Agriculture

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the conservation provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985 
  to promote the conservation and improvement of the soil, water, and 
   wildlife resources of lands containing muck soils, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. MUCK SOILS CONSERVATION.

    Title XII of the Food Security Act of 1985 is amended by inserting 
after section 1240R (16 U.S.C. 3839bb-5) the following new section:

``SEC. 1240S. CONSERVATION OF LAND CONTAINING MUCK SOILS.

    ``(a) Establishment of Program.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall 
carry out a conservation program under which the Secretary makes 
payments to assist owners and operators of eligible land specified in 
subsection (b) to conserve and improve the soil, water, and wildlife 
resources of such land.
    ``(b) Eligible Land.--To be eligible for inclusion in the program 
established under this section, the land must--
            ``(1) be comprised of soil that qualifies as muck, as 
        determined by the Secretary;
            ``(2) be used for production of an agricultural crop;
            ``(3) have a spring cover crop planted in conjunction with 
        the primary agricultural crop referred to in paragraph (2);
            ``(4) have a winter crop planted; and
            ``(5) have ditch banks seeded with grass that is maintained 
        on a year-round basis.
    ``(c) Payment Amounts.--The Secretary may provide payments of not 
less than $300, but not more than $500, per acre per year under the 
program.
    ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Secretary to carry out the program $50,000,000 for 
each of fiscal years 2011 and 2012.''.
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