To amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 to require, as a condition on the receipt of direct payments or counter-cyclical payments under such Act for rice produced by tenants and sharecroppers in Texas, that the producers on the farm agree to retain the rice cropland in production for the next crop year.

April 2, 2003

Mr. PAUL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture

To amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 to require, as a condition on the receipt of direct payments or counter-cyclical payments under such Act for rice produced by tenants and sharecroppers in Texas, that the producers on the farm agree to retain the rice cropland in production for the next crop year.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Rice Farmer Fairness Act of 2003'.

SEC. 2. ENHANCED PROTECTION FOR TENANTS AND SHARECROPPERS WHO PRODUCE RICE.

Section 1105(d) of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 7915(d)) is amended--

(1) by inserting `(1)' before `In carrying'; and

(2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

`(2) As a condition on the receipt of direct payments or counter-cyclical payments for rice produced in Texas when the principal producer of the rice is a tenant or sharecropper, the producers on the farm shall agree, as part of the agreement required by subsection (a)(1), to retain the rice cropland in rice production or a cropping system rotation that includes rice production during the next crop year.'.

END