7 U.S.C. § 7484 — Required terms in orders

(a) In general: An order must contain the terms and conditions specified in this section. (b) Establishment and membership of Popcorn Board: (1) In general: The order must establish a Popcorn Board and provide for appointing its members. The Board must have at least 4 and no more than 9 members. (2) Nominations: The Secretary must appoint processors to the Board from nominations submitted by processors in a way the Secretary authorizes, subject to paragraph (3). No more than one Board member may be appointed from nominations submitted by any one processor. (3) Geographical diversity: When making appointments, the Secretary must consider, as far as practicable, how popcorn production is distributed geographically throughout the United States. (4) Terms: Each Board member serves a 3-year term. Members of the first Board serve, proportionately, 2-, 3-, and 4-year terms, as the Secretary determines. (5) Compensation and expenses: A Board member serves without compensation but must be reimbursed for expenses incurred while performing duties for the Board. (c) Powers and duties of Board: The order must define the Board’s powers and duties, including the power and duty— (1) to administer the order according to its terms and provisions; (2) to issue regulations to carry out the order’s terms and provisions; (3) to appoint Board members to serve on an executive committee; (4) to propose, receive, evaluate, and approve budgets, plans, and projects for promotion, research, consumer information, and industry information, and to contract with appropriate people to carry out the plans or projects; (5) to accept and receive voluntary contributions, gifts, and market-promotion or similar funds; (6) to invest, until they are paid out under a plan or project, funds collected through assessments authorized under subsection (f), but only in— (A) obligations of the United States or a United States agency; (B) general obligations of a State or a State political subdivision; (C) an interest-bearing account or certificate of deposit at a bank that is a member of the Federal Reserve System; or (D) obligations fully guaranteed as to principal and interest by the United States; (7) to receive, investigate, and report complaints of order violations to the Secretary; and (8) to recommend order amendments to the Secretary. (d) Plans and budgets: (1) In general: The order must require the Board to submit to the Secretary for approval any promotion, research, consumer-information, or industry-information plan or project. (2) Budgets: The order must require the Board to submit to the Secretary for approval, for each fiscal year, a budget of the Board’s expected expenses and payments in carrying out the order. The budget must include projected costs of promotion, research, consumer-information, and industry-information plans and projects. (e) Contracts and agreements: (1) In general: The order must allow the Board to enter into contracts or agreements to implement and carry out promotion, research, consumer-information, or industry-information plans or projects, including contracts with a processor organization, and to pay their costs with money the Board collects under the order. (2) Requirements: Each contract or agreement under paragraph (1) must provide that— (A) the contracting party must develop and submit to the Board a plan or project and a budget showing its estimated costs; (B) the plan or project becomes effective when the Secretary approves it; and (C) the contracting party must keep accurate records of each transaction, account for money received and spent, periodically report to the Board on activities performed, and make any other reports the Board or Secretary requires. (3) Processor organizations: The order must allow the Board to contract with processor organizations for services needed in addition to those described in paragraph (1). The contract must include provisions comparable to those required by paragraph (2). (f) Assessments: (1) Processors: The order must require each processor that markets popcorn in the United States or for export to pay assessments and send them to the Board in the way the order prescribes. (2) Direct marketers: A processor that directly markets popcorn it produced to consumers must pay and send the assessments on that popcorn directly to the Board in the way the order prescribes. (3) Rate: (A) In general: The assessment rate in the order must be set by the Board and may not exceed 8 cents per hundredweight of popcorn. (B) Adjustment of rate: The order must allow the Board, with the Secretary’s approval, to raise or lower the assessment rate each year up to a maximum of 8 cents per hundredweight. (4) Use of assessments: (A) In general: Subject to subparagraphs (B) and (C) and subsection (c)(5), the order must require the Board to use collected assessments— (i) to pay expenses of implementing and administering the order, including a reasonable reserve; and (ii) to cover the Secretary’s administrative costs. But, other than legal costs for defending and enforcing the order, the Secretary’s administrative costs that the Board may reimburse may not exceed 15 percent of the Board’s projected yearly revenue. (B) Expenditures based on source of assessments: When carrying out promotion, research, consumer-information, and industry-information plans and projects, the Board must spend money on— (i) plans and projects for popcorn marketed in the United States or Canada in proportion to the assessments collected on popcorn marketed domestically; and (ii) plans and projects for exported popcorn in proportion to the assessments collected on exported popcorn. (C) Notification: If the Secretary’s reimbursed administrative costs exceed 10 percent of the Board’s projected yearly revenue, the Secretary must notify the House Committee on Agriculture and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry as soon as practicable. (g) Prohibition on use of funds: The order must prohibit using money the Board collects under the order to influence government action or policy, except that the Board may use money to develop and recommend order amendments to the Secretary. (h) Books and records of Board: The order must require the Board to— (1) keep the books and records the Secretary prescribes, which must be available to the Secretary for inspection and audit; (2) prepare and submit reports to the Secretary from time to time, as the Secretary prescribes; and (3) account for receiving and paying out all money entrusted to the Board. (i) Books and records of processors: (1) Maintenance and reporting of information: The order must require each processor of popcorn for the market to— (A) keep and make available for inspection the books and records the order requires; and (B) file reports when, how, and with the content the order prescribes. (2) Use of information: The Secretary must authorize the use of information about processors that may be collected under a law or regulation other than this subchapter or a regulation issued under it. The information must be made available to the Secretary as appropriate to administer or enforce this subchapter, the order, or a regulation issued under this subchapter. (3) Confidentiality: (A) In general: Subject to subparagraphs (B), (C), and (D), all information the Secretary obtains under paragraphs (1) and (2) must be kept confidential by every Board and Department officer, employee, and agent. (B) Disclosure by Secretary: Information covered by subparagraph (A) may be disclosed if— (i) the Secretary considers it relevant; (ii) it is revealed in a lawsuit or administrative hearing brought at the Secretary’s request or in which the Secretary or a United States officer is a party; and (iii) it relates to the order. (C) Disclosure to other agency of Federal Government: (i) In general: Information obtained under this subchapter may not be made available to another federal agency or federal officer for any purpose other than carrying out this subchapter and investigative or enforcement activity necessary to carry it out. (ii) Penalty: A person who knowingly violates this subparagraph is subject, upon conviction, to a fine of no more than $1,000, imprisonment for no more than 1 year, or both. If the person is a Board or Department officer, employee, or agent, the person must be removed from office or terminated from employment, as applicable. (D) General statements: Nothing in this paragraph prohibits— (i) issuing general statements based on reports from multiple people subject to an order or on statistical data collected from those reports, if the statements do not identify information provided by any person; or (ii) publishing, at the Secretary’s direction, the name of a person who violates the order together with a statement of the particular order provisions the person violated. (j) Other terms and conditions: The order must contain other terms and conditions consistent with this subchapter that are necessary to carry it out, including regulations about late-payment charges.