21 U.S.C. § 136a — Collection of fees for inspection services

(a) Quarantine and inspection fees. (1) Fees authorized: The Secretary of Agriculture may set and collect fees sufficient to (A) cover the cost of agricultural quarantine and inspection services connected to the arrival at a U.S. port, or the preclearance or preinspection outside the U.S., of an international passenger, commercial vessel, aircraft, truck, or railroad car; (B) cover the cost of administering this subsection; and (C) through fiscal year 2002, maintain a reasonable balance in the Agricultural Quarantine Inspection User Fee Account. (2) Limitation: The fees must be commensurate with the cost of the services provided to the class of people or entities paying them; for passengers, the cost includes related inspections of the aircraft or vehicle. (3) Status of fees: Fees collected on the Secretary's behalf are held in trust for the United States and must be remitted to the Secretary as and when the Secretary prescribes. (4) Late payment penalties: If someone fails to pay a fee when due, the Secretary must assess a late payment penalty, and the overdue fee accrues interest, as required by section 3717 of title 31. (5) Agricultural Quarantine Inspection User Fee Account: (A) This establishes a Treasury account holding all fees collected under this subsection and late penalties and interest collected through fiscal year 2002. (B) For fiscal years 1996 through 2002, funds in the Account are available, as provided in advance by appropriations acts, to cover the cost of these inspection services and administering this subsection, and remain available until spent. (C) Fees and other amounts collected in any of those years above $100,000,000 remain available for the same purposes until spent, without further appropriation. (6) Use of amounts collected after fiscal year 2002: After September 30, 2002, the Account's unspent balance and newly collected fees are instead credited to the Department of Agriculture accounts that incur these costs, and remain available to the Secretary until spent, with no fiscal year limit. (7) Staff years: Full-time equivalent positions tied to providing these inspection services and administering this subsection do not count toward government-wide staffing limits set by the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act of 1994 or similar limits. (b) Omitted. This subsection has no current text in this section — it was left out when the law was codified. (c) Animal inspection and veterinary diagnostics. (1) Animal inspection: The Secretary may set and collect fees to reimburse the cost of enforcing the Federal Animal Quarantine Laws governing the import, entry, and export of animals, articles, or means of conveyance. (2) Veterinary diagnostics: The Secretary may set and collect fees to recover the cost of carrying out the veterinary diagnostics provisions of the Animal Health Protection Act. (3) Fees: All fees, late payment penalties, and interest collected under this subsection are credited to the accounts that incur the cost and remain available until spent, with no fiscal year limit. (4) Liability: Anyone for whom one of these import, entry, export, or diagnostic activities is performed is liable to pay the assessed fees. If they fail to pay when due, the Secretary must assess a late payment penalty, and the overdue fees accrue interest, under section 3717 of title 31; these amounts are also credited to the relevant accounts and remain available until spent. (5) Liens: (A) The Secretary has a lien against the animal, article, means of conveyance, or facility that received the service, for the fees, late penalty, and interest owed. (B) If a person fails to pay when due, the Secretary also gets a lien against any animal, article, or means of conveyance that person later imports, moves in interstate commerce, or tries to export, until the person pays in full. (C)(i) After giving reasonable notice of default and reasonable public notice, the Secretary may sell at public sale, or otherwise dispose of, the animal, article, means of conveyance, or facility under the lien. (ii) If the sale proceeds exceed the fees, penalty, interest, and sale expenses, the excess goes to the owner if the owner applies with proof of ownership within 6 months of the sale; otherwise the excess is credited to the accounts that incur the related costs and remains available until spent. The Secretary must suspend performing services for anyone who has failed to pay. (d) Regulations. The Secretary may prescribe whatever regulations are necessary to carry out this section. (e) Recovery of amounts owed. An action to recover unpaid fees, late payment penalties, and accrued interest may be brought against a person obligated to pay them, in any U.S. district court or other U.S. territorial court with jurisdiction where that person is found, resides, or does business; that court has jurisdiction to hear and decide the action. (f) Definitions. (1) "Animal quarantine laws" means (A) section 306 of the Tariff Act of 1930; (B) section 9 of the Act of August 30, 1890; (C) the Animal Health Protection Act; or (D) any other Act the Secretary administers relating to plant or animal diseases or pests. (2) For subsection (a), "customs territory of the United States" means the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. (3) "Person" means an individual, corporation, partnership, trust, association, or any other public or private entity, or any of their officers, employees, or agents. (4) For subsection (b) — the omitted subsection — "United States" means the states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and all other U.S. territories and possessions. (5) For subsection (a), "vessel" does not include a ferry.