7 U.S.C. § 6005 — Required terms in plans

(a) In general. Each plan^* under this chapter must contain the terms and conditions in this section. (b) Pecan^* Marketing Board^*. (1) Establishment. The plan must establish a Pecan Marketing Board to carry out the program in section 6001(b). (2) Service to entire industry. The Board must run programs and projects that give the greatest benefit to the pecan industry throughout the United States^* and may promote only pecans generally. (3) Board membership. The Board has 15 members: (A) 8 growers; (B) 4 shellers; (C) 1 first handler^* who gets more than 50 percent of gross income from buying and selling pecans; (D) 1 pecan importer^* nominated by the Board; (E) 1 member^* of the general public nominated by the Board; and (F), if the Board chooses, a nonvoting consultant or adviser representing pecan producers in another country who may attend Board functions. (4) Representation. (A) Two grower^* members must come from each district^*. (B) Two sheller^* members must live east of the Mississippi River and two must live west of it. (C) The first-handler member must be selected from first handlers living in a district. (D) The importer member must import pecans into the United States. (E) The public member may not be a grower, grower-sheller^*, sheller, first handler, or importer. (5) Alternate. Each member must have an alternate with the same qualifications. (6) State^* limit. Each district may have no more than one member from each State, except Georgia may have two growers representing its district. (7) Modifying membership. Under Secretary^*-approved regulations, at least once every three years and no more than once every two years, the Board must review the geographic distribution of pecan production and, if warranted, recommend that the Secretary reapportion a district. (8) Selection. (A) The Board must publicize nominations to the industry. (B) Growers and shellers may vote for nominees representing their class; growers may also vote for first-handler nominees. (C) Each eligible voter has one vote, and the two candidates with the most votes for each position and class are nominees. (D) Except for the initial Board, the Board must certify those nominations and the importer and public nominations and submit them to the Secretary by May 1, or another Board-recommended and Secretary-approved date before the term begins. (E) The Secretary appoints one certified nominee to each vacancy. (F) The Secretary may reject nominees; if too few remain, more nominees must be submitted the same way. (G) The Secretary establishes the initial Board from nominations the Secretary solicits. For grower, sheller, and first-handler members, the Secretary performs the Board's necessary nomination functions. Importer and public members are nominated under paragraph (3). (H) If growers or shellers do not nominate people, the Secretary may appoint members as the plan provides. If the Board does not nominate an importer or public member, that member may be appointed without a nomination. (9) Terms. (A) Members serve three years. Initial members serve proportionately for one-, two-, and three-year terms as the Secretary decides. (B) Each member continues until the Secretary appoints a successor. (C) No person^* may serve more than two consecutive three-year terms. (D)(i) For a vacancy caused by death, removal, resignation, or disqualification, the Secretary must ask the Board for at least two eligible successor nominations in the paragraph (8) manner. (ii) If two are not submitted, the Secretary decides how nominations will be submitted. (10) Compensation. Members receive no compensation, but the Board must reimburse necessary and reasonable expenses incurred in approved Board duties. (c) Powers and duties. The plan must give the Board power and duty to: (1) administer the plan; (2) make regulations carrying out its terms; (3) meet, organize, and choose a chair, officers, committees, and subcommittees; (4) create working committees of nonmembers; (5) hire needed nonmembers, set their pay, and define their duties; (6) before each fiscal period, recommend to the Secretary an assessment rate under section 6007 and a budget, including program and project costs; (7) develop programs and projects subject to subsection (d); (8) make contracts or agreements subject to subsection (e) for promotion^*, research^*, industry information^*, and consumer information^*; (9) conduct those activities and pay for them with section 6007 assessments; (10) keep minutes, books, and records and promptly report meeting minutes to the Secretary; (11) appoint working committees of growers, grower-shellers, first handlers, shellers, importers, and the public; (12) before spending assessment funds, invest them only in (A) United States or agency obligations, (B) general obligations of a State or political subdivision, (C) an interest-bearing Federal Reserve System bank account or certificate of deposit, or (D) obligations fully guaranteed by the United States, while investment income may be used for any permitted purpose; (13) receive, investigate, and report plan-violation complaints; (14) provide information the Secretary requests; (15) recommend plan amendments; and (16) develop and recommend Secretary-approved regulations needed for programs, projects, or the plan. (d) Programs and budgets. (1) The Board must submit every promotion, research, consumer-information, or industry-information program or project to the Secretary for approval, and may not implement it before approval. (2) Before each fiscal year, or later when necessary, it must submit budgets of expected expenses and disbursements, including member reimbursements and projected program costs. (3) It may incur Secretary-authorized program and Board-administration expenses, including Department^* implementation, administration, and referendum costs. (4) The Board pays those expenses from assessments or borrowing under paragraph (5). (5) With Secretary approval, it may borrow for capital outlays and startup costs. (6) Beginning three years after the Board is established, it may not spend more than 20 percent of section 6007 assessments on administration. (e) Contracts and agreements. (1) The plan must allow contracts or agreements, including with grower and grower-sheller organizations, to carry out pecan programs and pay their costs. (2) Each must require the contractor to (A) submit a program and budget showing estimated costs; (B) make the program effective only after Secretary approval; and (C) keep accurate records, account for money received and spent, give periodic activity reports to the Board, and give other required reports. (3) The plan may allow contracts with grower and grower-sheller organizations for other services, with comparable requirements. (f) Books and records of Board. (1) The plan must require the Board to (A) keep books and records prescribed by the Secretary and make them available for inspection and audit; (B) submit prescribed reports; and (C) account for all entrusted money received and paid out. (2) The Board must have an independent auditor audit its books and records at each fiscal year's end and submit the audit report to the Secretary. (g) Prohibition. The Board may not act to, and may not use chapter funds to, (1) influence legislation or governmental action, except by recommending plan amendments; (2) create a conflict of interest^*; or (3) use false or misleading advertising. (h) Books and records. (1) The plan must require each first handler, grower-sheller, and importer to (A) keep and submit reports the Secretary considers necessary for compliance and (B) make necessary books and records available during normal business hours for Board or Secretary employees, including records needed to verify reports. (2) These records must be kept for two years after the fiscal period to which they apply. (3) Confidentiality. (A) Unless this chapter provides otherwise, information from required books, records, or reports must be confidential and no person may disclose it publicly. (B) It may be made public only if (i) the Secretary considers it relevant, (ii) it is revealed in a suit or administrative hearing brought at the Secretary's direction or request or in which the Secretary or a Department officer is a party, and (iii) it concerns this chapter. (C) A Board member or employee who improperly discloses it violates this chapter, unless another law requires or subparagraph (B) or (D) allows the disclosure. (D) This does not bar (i) general statements based on reports about the number of persons subject to the plan or anonymous statistical data, or (ii) Secretary-directed publication of a violator's name and the plan provisions violated. (4) Availability. (A) Unless this chapter provides otherwise, information may be given to another Federal agency for civil or criminal enforcement only when legally authorized and the agency head makes a written request identifying the information and enforcement activity. (B) A person who knowingly violates this subsection may, on conviction, be fined up to $1,000, imprisoned up to one year, or both; a Board or Department officer or employee must also be removed from office. (5) Nothing here authorizes withholding information from Congress. (i) Use of assessments. The plan must provide that section 6007 assessments pay implementation and administration expenses, maintain a reasonable reserve, and pay the Secretary's administrative costs, but not Government employee salaries for referenda. (j) Other terms and conditions. The plan must also contain Secretary-determined terms and conditions consistent with this chapter that are necessary to carry it out.