7 U.S.C. § 5403 — Environmental Quality Policy Statement

(a) Environmental Quality Policy Statement, implementation plan, and annual report. (1) Policy statement. The Council must develop an Environmental Quality Policy Statement identifying goals and objectives for addressing agriculture’s effects on environmental quality. It must be based on the assessment in paragraph (2) of the Department of Agriculture’s current programs, staffing, and funding for evaluating, preventing, and reducing environmental problems that agricultural production may cause. The Council must revise the statement at least every 5 years. (2) Assessment. The assessment must include (A) detailed descriptions of the involved Department agencies’ roles; (B) current efforts to coordinate those agencies’ activities; (C) recommendations to prevent unwanted duplication within the Department and between Department programs and other Federal and State programs; and (D) specific recommendations for new monitoring, research, extension, and technical-assistance initiatives addressing current and possible environmental-quality problems. It may use existing Department documents and planning processes. (b) Implementation plan. Subject to Council approval, the Director must prepare a plan carrying out the policy statement. The plan must assess each Department agency’s activities to reduce negative environmental effects of its agricultural policies, programs, and practices, and must describe in detail new Department-wide and agency-specific initiatives intended to achieve the policy’s goals and objectives. The plan must be revised at least every 5 years. (c) Annual environmental-quality report. By January 31, 1992, and every year after that, the Council, through the Director, must send Congress, appropriate Federal and State agencies, and the public a report on progress toward the policy’s goals and objectives. The report must also include (1) a review of the Department’s environmental activities and initiatives during the previous year; (2) specific actions taken to coordinate Department environmental programs with Federal and related State programs; and (3) recommendations the Secretary considers appropriate for current or additional programs, initiatives, or policies that balance production agriculture’s needs with environmental concerns. (d) Authorization of appropriations. Congress may appropriate up to $2,000,000 each year to carry out this chapter.