7 USC 4504(k): Confidential financial information

          
Sec. 4504. Required terms in orders

    Any order issued under this subchapter shall contain terms and 
conditions as follows:
    (a) The order shall provide for the establishment and administration 
of appropriate plans or projects for advertisement and promotion of the 
sale and consumption of dairy products, for research projects related 
thereto, for nutrition education projects, and for the disbursement of 
necessary funds for such purposes. Any such plan or project shall be 
directed toward the sale and marketing or use of dairy products to the 
end that the marketing and use of dairy products may be encouraged, 
expanded, improved, or made more acceptable. No such advertising or 
sales promotion program shall make use of unfair or deceptive acts or 
practices with respect to the quality, value, or use of any competing 
product.
    (b) National Dairy Promotion and Research Board.--
        (1) The order shall provide for the establishment and 
    appointment by the Secretary of a National Dairy Promotion and 
    Research Board that shall consist of not less than thirty-six 
    members.
        (2) Except as provided in paragraph (6), the members of the 
    Board shall be milk producers appointed by the Secretary from 
    nominations submitted by eligible organizations certified under 
    section 4505 of this title, or, if the Secretary determines that a 
    substantial number of milk producers are not members of, or their 
    interests are not represented by, any such eligible organization, 
    then from nominations made by such milk producers in the manner 
    authorized by the Secretary.
        (3) In making such appointments, the Secretary shall take into 
    account, to the extent practicable, the geographical distribution of 
    milk production volume throughout the United States.
        (4) In determining geographic representation, whole States shall 
    be considered as a unit.
        (5) A region may be represented by more than one director and a 
    region may be made up of more than one State.
        (6) Importers.--
            (A) Initial representation.--In making initial appointments 
        to the Board of importer representatives, the Secretary shall 
        appoint 2 members who represent importers of dairy products and 
        are subject to assessments under the order.
            (B) Subsequent representation.--At least once every 3 years 
        after the initial appointment of importer representatives under 
        subparagraph (A), the Secretary shall review the average volume 
        of domestic production of dairy products compared to the average 
        volume of imports of dairy products into the United States 
        during the previous 3 years and, on the basis of that review, 
        shall reapportion importer representation on the Board to 
        reflect the proportional share of the United States market by 
        domestic production and imported dairy products.
            (C) Additional members; nominations.--The members appointed 
        under this paragraph--
                (i) shall be in addition to the total number of members 
            appointed under paragraph (2); and
                (ii) shall be appointed from nominations submitted by 
            importers under such procedures as the Secretary determines 
            to be appropriate.

        (7) The term of appointment to the Board shall be for three 
    years with no member serv

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    ing more than two consecutive terms, except that initial 
    appointments shall be proportionately for one-year, two-year, and 
    three-year terms.
        (8) The Board shall appoint from its members an executive 
    committee whose membership shall equally reflect each of the 
    different regions in the United States in which milk is produced as 
    well as importers of dairy products.
        (9) The executive committee shall have such duties and powers as 
    are conferred upon it by the Board.
        (10) Board members shall serve without compensation, but shall 
    be reimbursed for their reasonable expenses incurred in performing 
    their duties as members of the Board including a per diem allowance 
    as recommended by the Board and approved by the Secretary.
    (c) The order shall define the powers and duties of the Board that 
shall include only the powers enumerated in this section. These shall 
include, in addition to the powers set forth elsewhere in this section, 
the powers to (1) receive and evaluate, or on its own initiative 
develop, and budget for plans or projects to promote the use of fluid 
milk and dairy products as well as projects for research and nutrition 
education and to make recommendations to the Secretary regarding such 
proposals, (2) administer the order in accordance with its terms and 
provisions, (3) make rules and regulations to effectuate the terms and 
provisions of the order, (4) receive, investigate, and report to the 
Secretary complaints of violations of the order, and (5) recommend to 
the Secretary amendments to the order. The Board shall solicit, among 
others, research proposals that would increase the use of fluid milk and 
dairy products by the military and by persons in developing nations, and 
that would demonstrate the feasibility of converting surplus nonfat dry 
milk to casein for domestic and export use.
    (d) The order shall provide that the Board shall develop and submit 
to the Secretary for approval any promotion, research, or nutrition 
education plan or project and that any such plan or project must be 
approved by the Secretary before becoming effective.
    (e) Budgets.--
        (1) Preparation and submission.--The order shall require the 
    Board to submit to the Secretary for approval budgets on a fiscal 
    period basis of its anticipated expenses and disbursements in the 
    administration of the order, including projected costs of dairy 
    products promotion and research projects.
        (2) Foreign market efforts.--The order shall authorize the Board 
    to expend in the maintenance and expansion of foreign markets an 
    amount not to exceed the amount collected from United States 
    producers for a fiscal year. Of those funds, for each of the 2002 
    through 2007 fiscal years, the Board's budget may provide for the 
    expenditure of revenues available to the Board to develop 
    international markets for, and to promote within such markets, the 
    consumption of dairy products produced or manufactured in the United 
    States.

    (f) The order shall provide that the Board, with the approval of the 
Secretary, may enter into agreements for the development and conduct of 
the activities authorized under the order as specified in subsection (a) 
of this section and for the payment of the cost thereof with funds 
collected through assessments under the order. Any such agreement shall 
provide that (1) the contracting party shall develop and submit to the 
Board a plan or project together with a budget or budgets that shall 
show estimated costs to be incurred for such plan or project, (2) the 
plan or project shall become effective upon the approval of the 
Secretary, and (3) the contracting party shall keep accurate records of 
all of its transactions, account for funds received and expended, and 
make periodic reports to the Board of activities conducted, and such 
other reports as the Secretary or the Board may require.
    (g) Assessments.--
        (1) The order shall provide that each person making payment to a 
    producer for milk produced in the United States and purchased from 
    the producer shall, in the manner as prescribed by the order, 
    collect an assessment based upon the number of hundredweights of 
    milk for commercial use handled for the account of the producer and 
    remit the assessment to the Board.
        (2) The assessment shall be used for payment of the expenses in 
    administering the order, with provision for a reasonable reserve, 
    and shall include those administrative costs incurred by the 
    Department after an order has been promulgated under this 
    subchapter.
        (3) The rate of assessment for milk produced in the United 
    States and imported dairy products prescribed by the order shall be 
    15 cents per hundredweight of milk for commercial use or the 
    equivalent thereof, as determined by the Secretary.
        (4) A milk producer or the producer's cooperative who can 
    establish that the producer is participating in active, ongoing 
    qualified State or regional dairy product promotion or nutrition 
    education programs intended to increase consumption of milk and 
    dairy products generally shall receive credit in determining the 
    assessment due from such producer for contributions to such programs 
    of up to 10 cents per hundredweight of milk marketed or, for the 
    period ending six months after November 29, 1983, up to the 
    aggregate rate in effect on November 29, 1983, of such contributions 
    to such programs (but not to exceed 15 cents per hundredweight of 
    milk marketed) if such aggregate rate exceeds 10 cents per 
    hundredweight of milk marketed.
        (5) Any person marketing milk of that person's own production 
    directly to consumers shall remit the assessment directly to the 
    Board in the manner prescribed by the order.
        (6) Importers.--
            (A) In general.--The order shall provide that each importer 
        of imported dairy products shall pay an assessment to the Board 
        in the manner prescribed by the order.
            (B) Time for payment.--The assessment on imported dairy 
        products shall be paid by the importer to Customs at the time 
        the entry documents are filed with Customs. Customs shall remit 
        the assessments to the Board. For purposes of this subparagraph,

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        the term ``importer'' includes persons who hold title to 
        foreign-produced dairy products immediately upon release by 
        Customs, as well as persons who act on behalf of others, as 
        agents, brokers, or consignees, to secure the release of dairy 
        products from Customs.
            (C) Use of assessments on imported dairy products.--
        Assessments collected on imported dairy products shall not be 
        used for foreign market promotion.

    (h) The order shall require the Board to (1) maintain such books and 
records (which shall be available to the Secretary for inspection and 
audit) as the Secretary may prescribe, (2) prepare and submit to the 
Secretary, from time to time, such reports as the Secretary may 
prescribe, and (3) account for the receipt and disbursement of all funds 
entrusted to it.
    (i) The order shall provide that the Board, with the approval of the 
Secretary, may invest, pending disbursement under a plan or project, 
funds collected through assessments authorized under this subchapter 
only in obligations of the United States or any agency thereof, in 
general obligations of any State or any political subdivision thereof, 
in any interest-bearing account or certificate of deposit of a bank that 
is a member of the Federal Reserve System, or in obligations fully 
guaranteed as to principal and interest by the United States.
    (j) The order shall prohibit any funds collected by the Board under 
the order from being used in any manner for the purpose of influencing 
governmental policy or action except as provided by subsection (c)(5) of 
this section.

        

            
 
          
    (k) The order shall require that each importer of imported dairy 
products, each person receiving milk from farmers for commercial use, 
and any person marketing milk of that person's own production directly 
to consumers, maintain and make available for inspection such books and 
records as may be required by the order and file reports at the time, in 
the manner, and having the content prescribed by the order. Such 
information shall be made available to the Secretary as is appropriate 
to the administration or enforcement of this subchapter, or any order or 
regulation issued under this subchapter. All information so obtained 
shall be kept confidential by all officers and employees of the 
Department, and only such information so obtained as the Secretary deems 
relevant may be disclosed by them and then only in a suit or 
administrative hearing brought at the request of the Secretary, or to 
which the Secretary or any officer of the United States is a party, and 
involving the order with reference to which the information to be 
disclosed was obtained. Nothing in this subsection may be deemed to 
prohibit (1) the issuance of general statements, based upon the reports, 
of the number of persons subject to an order or statistical data 
collected therefrom, which 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 order, together with 
a statement of the particular provisions of the order violated by such 
person. No information obtained under the authority of this subchapter 
may be made available to any agency or officer of the Federal Government 
for any purpose other than the implementation of this subchapter and any 
investigatory or enforcement action necessary for the implementation of 
this subchapter. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection 
shall, upon conviction, be subject to a fine of not more than $1,000, or 
to imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, and, if an officer 
or employee of the Board or the Department, shall be removed from 
office.
    (l) The order shall provide terms and conditions, not inconsistent 
with the provisions of this subchapter, as necessary to effectuate the 
provisions of the order.

(Pub. L. 98-180, title I, Sec. 113, Nov. 29, 1983, 97 Stat. 1137; Pub. 
L. 104-127, title I, Sec. 152, Apr. 4, 1996, 110 Stat. 922; Pub. L. 107-
171, title I, Sec. 1505(b)-(e), May 13, 2002, 116 Stat. 208, 209.)


                               Amendments

    2002--Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 107-171, Sec. 1505(b), inserted heading, 
designated first to ninth sentences as pars. (1) to (5) and (7) to (10), 
respectively, and realigned margins, substituted ``Except as provided in 
paragraph (6), the members of the Board'' for ``Members of the Board'' 
in par. (2) and ``is produced as well as importers of dairy products'' 
for ``is produced'' in par. (8), and added par. (6).
    Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 107-171, Sec. 1505(c), inserted heading, 
designated existing provisions as par. (1), inserted heading, and struck 
out ``For each of fiscal years 1997 through 2001, the Board's budget may 
provide for the expenditure of revenues available to the Board to 
develop international markets for, and to promote within such markets, 
the consumption of dairy products produced in the United States from 
milk produced in the United States.'' at end, and added par. (2).
    Subsec. (g). Pub. L. 107-171, Sec. 1505(d), inserted heading, 
designated first to fifth sentences as pars. (1) to (5), respectively, 
and realigned margins, inserted ``for milk produced in the United States 
and imported dairy products'' after ``The rate of assessment'' and ``, 
as determined by the Secretary'' before period at end in par. (3), and 
added par. (6).
    Subsec. (k). Pub. L. 107-171, Sec. 1505(e), substituted ``importer 
of imported dairy products, each person receiving milk from farmers'' 
for ``person receiving milk from farmers'' in first sentence.
    1996--Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 104-127 inserted at end ``For each of 
fiscal years 1997 through 2001, the Board's budget may provide for the 
expenditure of revenues available to the Board to develop international 
markets for, and to promote within such markets, the consumption of 
dairy products produced in the United States from milk produced in the 
United States.''

                          Transfer of Functions

    For transfer of functions, personnel, assets, and liabilities of the 
United States Customs Service of the Department of the Treasury, 
including functions of the Secretary of the Treasury relating thereto, 
to the Secretary of Homeland Security, and for treatment of related 
references, see sections 203(1), 551(d), 552(d), and 557 of Title 6, 
Domestic Security, and the Department of Homeland Security 
Reorganization Plan of November 25, 2002, as modified, set out as a note 
under section 542 of Title 6.