§ 3838g. Duties of the Secretary
(a)
In general
To achieve the conservation goals of a contract under the conservation stewardship program, the Secretary shall—
(1)
make the program available to eligible producers on a continuous enrollment basis with 1 or more ranking periods, one of which shall occur in the first quarter of each fiscal year;
(b)
Allocation to States
The Secretary shall allocate acres to States for enrollment, based—
(1)
primarily on each State’s proportion of eligible acres under section
3838e
(b)(1) of this title to the total number of eligible acres in all States; and
(c)
Specialty crop and organic producers
The Secretary shall ensure that outreach and technical assistance are available, and program specifications are appropriate to enable specialty crop and organic producers to participate in the program.
(d)
Acreage enrollment limitation
During the period beginning on October 1, 2008, and ending on September 30, 2017, the Secretary shall, to the maximum extent practicable—
(e)
Conservation stewardship payments
(1)
Availability of payments
The Secretary shall provide a payment under the program to compensate the producer for—
(2)
Payment amount
The amount of the conservation stewardship payment shall be determined by the Secretary and based, to the maximum extent practicable, on the following factors:
(3)
Exclusions
A payment to a producer under this subsection shall not be provided for—
(f)
Supplemental payments for resource-conserving crop rotations
(1)
Availability of payments
The Secretary shall provide additional payments to producers that, in participating in the program, agree to adopt resource-conserving crop rotations to achieve beneficial crop rotations as appropriate for the land of the producers.
(2)
Beneficial crop rotations
The Secretary shall determine whether a resource-conserving crop rotation is a beneficial crop rotation eligible for additional payments under paragraph (1), based on whether the resource-conserving crop rotation is designed to provide natural resource conservation and production benefits.
(3)
Eligibility
To be eligible to receive a payment described in paragraph (1), a producer shall agree to adopt and maintain beneficial resource-conserving crop rotations for the term of the contract.
(g)
Payment limitations
A person or legal entity may not receive, directly or indirectly, payments under this subpart that, in the aggregate, exceed $200,000 for all contracts entered into during any 5-year period, excluding funding arrangements with federally recognized Indian tribes or Alaska Native corporations, regardless of the number of contracts entered into under the program by the person or entity.
(h)
Regulations
The Secretary shall promulgate regulations that—
(i)
Data
The Secretary shall maintain detailed and segmented data on contracts and payments under the program to allow for quantification of the amount of payments made for—