7 U.S.C. § 4908 — Assessment procedures

(a) Assessment remittance, records, and equal assessments.

(1) Each handler^* required to pay assessments under a plan^* must pay the Board^* as the Board directs. The handler must also collect from each producer^*, or deduct from payments to the producer, the producer assessment on that producer’s watermelons, and send those assessments to the Board as directed. The handler must keep a separate record for each producer whose watermelons the handler handled. The records must show the total quantity handled, including watermelons handled for producers and for the handler; the total quantity covered by the plan; the quantity exempt under the plan; and any other information the Board requires. To help collect and pay assessments, the Board may designate different handlers or classes of handlers to account for different marketing practices in a State or area. The handler must be assessed the same amount as the producer. No watermelon^* may be assessed more than once for a producer or more than once for a handler.

(2) If importers are subject to the plan:

(A) Each importer^* required to pay must pay the Board as the Board directs.
(B) The assessment on imported watermelons must equal the combined domestic producer and handler rate and must be paid by the importer when the watermelons enter the United States^*.
(C) Each importer required to pay must keep a separate record showing the total quantity imported that is covered by the plan, the total quantity exempt from the plan, and any other information the Board requires.
(D) No imported watermelon may be assessed more than once.

(b) Inspection of records. Handlers and importers responsible for assessments must keep and make available to the Secretary^* for inspection the books and records required by the plan. They must file reports at the times, in the manner, and with the contents the plan requires, so the Board and Secretary receive information appropriate or necessary to carry out, administer, or enforce this chapter, a plan, or a regulation under this chapter.

(c) Confidentiality, disclosures, penalties, and removal. Department of Agriculture and Board officers and employees must keep all information obtained under subsections (a) and (b) confidential. They may disclose only information the Secretary considers relevant, and only in a lawsuit or administrative hearing brought at the Secretary’s direction or request, or in which the Secretary or a United States officer is a party, when the matter concerns the plan connected to the information. This does not prohibit:

(1) general statements based on reports from several handlers or importers subject to a plan, if the statements do not identify anyone’s information; or

(2) publication, at the Secretary’s direction, of a violator’s name together with the particular plan provisions violated.

An officer or employee who violates this subsection may be fined up to $1,000, imprisoned for up to one year, or both, and must be removed from office.