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HR 3339
Introduced Re-checks Congress.gov for new actions and updates the bill's status, and fills in any sponsors, committees, or related bills that are missing. It does not re-pull sponsors/cosponsors/committees/related — those rarely change — and it skips all work if nothing has changed upstream, so it's cheap to click.

Rice Farmer Fairness Act

To amend the Agricultural Market Transition Act to ensure that rice farms covered by a production flexibility contract remain in rice production during the term of the contract when the principal producer of rice on the farm is a tenant or sharecropper.

Introduced Mar 5, 1998

Latest action (Mar 10, 1998) Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities.

Referred to
Agriculture Committee General Farm Commodities Subcommittee
Policy area
Agriculture and Food
Issues
Economy & Taxes
Legislative subjects (14)
Agricultural subsidiesCropland conversion programEconomics and Public FinanceEnvironmental ProtectionFarmland protectionFarm tenancyGovernment Operations and PoliticsPublic Lands and Natural ResourcesRiceSharecroppingSoil conservationSoil erosionWater Resources DevelopmentWetland conservation

Summary

This bill amends the Agricultural Market Transition Act to protect tenants and sharecroppers who produce rice on farms covered by production flexibility contracts. The bill requires that if eligible cropland covered by a contract includes rice cropland and a tenant or sharecropper was the principal rice producer before the contract was entered into, the owner or producer must maintain that rice cropland in rice production or in a cropping system rotation that includes rice production during the term of the contract. This requirement is a condition for the owner or producer to continue receiving contract payments. The bill defines "rice cropland" as cropland that was used for rice production in the crop year immediately before the contract began, or was part of a rice cropping system rotation.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)

Actions (4)
  1. Mar 10, 1998 Referred to the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities. · house
  2. Mar 5, 1998 Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture. · house
  3. Mar 5, 1998 Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR E317)
  4. Mar 5, 1998 Introduced in House

More bills on these subjects (8)

Other bills that carry the most legislative subjects in common with this one (topical discovery — distinct from the procedural related bills above).

  • HR 5511 — Conservation Security Act of 2000 (shares 9 subjects)
  • HRES 493 — Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Secretary of Agriculture should provide timely assistance to Texas farmers and livestock producers who are experiencing worsening drought conditions. (shares 7 subjects)
  • S 1072 — Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2004 (shares 5 subjects)
  • HR 5205 — Food Security and Land Stewardship Act of 2000 (shares 5 subjects)
  • HR 4128 — To amend the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act to ensure that States and local governments can quickly and safely remove flood debris so as to reduce the risk and severity of subsequent flooding. (shares 5 subjects)
  • HR 5130 — Secure Borders Act (shares 4 subjects)
  • HR 3266 — Faster and Smarter Funding for First Responders Act of 2004 (shares 4 subjects)
  • S 1825 — Pacific Salmon Recovery Act (shares 4 subjects)

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • HR 3516 — Opportunities for Fairness in Farming Act of 2025 · Introduced May 20, 2025 · Cong. 119 74%
  • HR 4657 — Next Generation Farmer Act · Introduced Jul 23, 2025 · Cong. 119 70%
  • S 1848 — Opportunities for Fairness in Farming Act of 2025 · Introduced May 21, 2025 · Cong. 119 68%
  • HR 3283 — FARMER Act · Introduced May 8, 2025 · Cong. 119 68%
  • HR 5205 — Food Security and Land Stewardship Act of 2000 · Introduced Oct 2, 2000 · Cong. 106 67%
  • S 984 — Fair Access to Agriculture Disaster Programs Act · Introduced Mar 12, 2025 · Cong. 119 67%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in House · Mar 5, 1998

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

March 5, 1998

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

A BILL

To amend the Agricultural Market Transition Act to ensure that rice farms covered by a production flexibility contract remain in rice production during the term of the contract when the principal producer of rice on the farm is a tenant or sharecropper.

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”.

SEC. 2. ENHANCED PROTECTION FOR TENANTS AND SHARECROPPERS WHO PRODUCE RICE ON FARMS COVERED BY PRODUCTION FLEXIBILITY CONTRACTS.

Section 111(c) of the Agricultural Market Transition Act (title I of Public Law 104-127; 7 U.S.C. 7211(c)) is amended—

(1) by inserting “(1)” before “In carrying”; and

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

“(2) Notwithstanding subsection (a)(4), if eligible cropland covered by a contract includes rice cropland and a tenant or sharecropper was the principal producer of the rice before the contact was entered into, the owner or producer who entered into the contract shall be required, as a condition for the continued eligibility of the owner or producer for contract payments, to retain the rice cropland in rice production or a cropping system rotation that includes rice production during the term of the contract. For purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘rice cropland’ means eligible cropland that, in the crop year immediately before the crop year in which the contract was entered into with regard to that eligible cropland—

“(A) was used for the production of rice; or

“(B) was not used for the production of rice, but was in a rice cropping system rotation for the purpose of producing rice.”. <all>

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