7 USC 4908(c): List of watermelon growers and handlers

          
Sec. 4908. Assessment procedures


(a) Persons responsible for remittance of assessments; recordkeeping; 
        equal and unitary assessments

    (1) Each handler required to pay assessments under a plan, as 
provided for under section

[[Page 1369]]

4906(f) of this title, shall be responsible for payment to the Board, as 
it may direct, of the assessments. A handler also shall collect from any 
producer, or shall deduct from the proceeds paid to any producer, on 
whose watermelons a producer assessment is made, the assessments 
required to be paid by the producer. The handler shall remit producer 
assessments to the Board as the Board directs. Such handler shall 
maintain a separate record with respect to each producer for whom 
watermelons were handled. Such records shall indicate the total quantity 
of watermelons handled by the handler, including those handled for 
producers and for the handler, the total quantity of watermelons handled 
by the handler that are included under the terms of the plan, as well as 
those that are exempt under the plan, and such other information as may 
be prescribed by the Board. To facilitate the collection and payment of 
assessments, the Board may designate different handlers or classes of 
handlers to recognize differences in marketing practices or procedures 
used in any State or area. The handler shall be assessed an equal amount 
as the producer. No more than one assessment on a producer nor more than 
one assessment on a handler shall be made on any watermelons.
    (2)(A) If importers are subject to the plan, each importer required 
to pay assessments under the plan shall be responsible for payment of 
the assessment to the Board, as the Board may direct.
    (B) The assessment on imported watermelons shall be equal to the 
combined rate for domestic producers and handlers and shall be paid by 
the importer to the Board at the time of the entry of the watermelons 
into the United States.
    (C) Each importer required to pay assessments under the plan shall 
maintain a separate record that includes a record of--
        (i) the total quantity of watermelons imported into the United 
    States that are included under the terms of the plan;
        (ii) the total quantity of watermelons that are exempt from the 
    plan; and
        (iii) such other information as may be prescribed by the Board.

    (D) No more than 1 assessment shall be made on any imported 
watermelon.

(b) Inspection of records

    Handlers and importers responsible for payment of assessments under 
subsection (a) of this section shall maintain and make available for 
inspection by the Secretary such books and records as required by the 
plan and file reports at the times, in the manner, and having the 
content prescribed by the plan, to the end that information and data 
shall be made available to the Board and to the Secretary that is 
appropriate or necessary to the effectuation, administration, or 
enforcement of this chapter or of any plan or regulation issued under 
this chapter.

        

            
 
          

(c) Confidentiality of information; disclosure authority; general or 
        violation statements; penalties; removal from office

    All information obtained under subsections (a) and (b) of this 
section shall be kept confidential by all officers and employees of the 
Department of Agriculture and of the Board, and only such information so 
furnished or acquired as the Secretary deems relevant shall be disclosed 
by them, and then only in a suit or administrative hearing brought at 
the direction, or on the request, of the Secretary, or to which the 
Secretary or any officer of the United States is a party, and involving 
the plan with reference to which the information to be disclosed was 
furnished or acquired. Nothing in this subsection shall be deemed to 
prohibit--
        (1) the issuance of general statements based on the reports of a 
    number of handlers or importers subject to a plan if such statements 
    do not identify the information furnished by any person; or
        (2) the publication by direction of the Secretary of the name of 
    any person violating any plan together with a statement of the 
    particular provisions of the plan violated by such person.

Any such officer or employee violating the provisions of this subsection 
shall be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment for 
not more than one year, or both, and shall be removed from office.

(Pub. L. 99-198, title XVI, Sec. 1649, Dec. 23, 1985, 99 Stat. 1626; 
Pub. L. 103-189, Sec. 8(g), Dec. 14, 1993, 107 Stat. 2262.)


                               Amendments

    1993--Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 103-189, Sec. 8(g)(1), designated 
existing provisions as par. (1) and added par. (2).
    Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 103-189, Sec. 8(g)(2), inserted ``and 
importers'' after ``Handlers''.
    Subsec. (c)(1). Pub. L. 103-189, Sec. 8(g)(3), inserted ``or 
importers'' after ``handlers''.