the Treasury may be invested in obligations of the United States or in obligations guaranteed as to principal and interest by the United States. Subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve banks are hereby authorized and directed to act as depositories, custodians, and fiscal agents for the Corporation in the performance of its powers conferred by this title. (7 U.S.C. 1510.)

TAX EXEMPTION

SEC. 511. The Corporation, including its franchise, its capital, reserves, and surplus, and its income and property, shall be exempt from all taxation now or hereafter imposed by the United States or by any Territory, dependency, or possession thereof, or by any State, county, municipality or local taxing authority. (7 U.S.C. 1511.)

FISCAL AGENT OF GOVERNMENT

SEC. 512. When designated for that purpose by the Secretary of the Treasury, the Corporation shall be a depository of public money, except receipts from customs, under such regulations as may be prescribed by said Secretary; and it may also be employed as a financial agent of the Government; and it shall perform all such reasonable duties, as a depository of public money and financial agent of the Government, as may be required of it. (7 U.S.C. 1512.)

ACCOUNTING BY CORPORATION

SEC. 513. The Corporation shall at all times maintain complete and accurate books of account and shall file annually with the Secretary of Agriculture a complete report as to the business of the Corporation. (7 U.S.C. 1513.)21

CRIMES AND OFFENSES

SEC. 514. (Subsections (a) through (e) repealed by 62 Stat. 859.) (See criminal provisions beginning on p. 46-14.)

(f) The provisions of section 22 of Title 41 shall not apply to any crop insurance agreements made under this title. (7 U.S.C. 1514 (f).)

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

SEC. 515. (This section relating to the appointment and compensation of advisory committees was repealed by Section 108, P.L. 96-365, 94 Stat. 1312, Sept. 26, 1980.) (7 U.S.C. 1515.)

APPROPRIATIONS AND REGULATIONS

SEC. 516. (a)22 There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to cover the operating and administrative costs of the Corporation, including agents' and brokers' commissions, interest on Treasury notes and other obligations, partial premium payments by the Corporation, and the direct cost of loss adjusters for crop

21 P.L. 93-604, 88 Stat. 1963, Jan. 2, 1975, deleted the provision requiring annual audits by the General Accounting Office. 22 Subsection (a) was added by P.L. 96-365, 94 Stat. 1312, Sept. 26, 1980.

inspections and loss adjustments, which shall be allotted to the Corporation in such amounts and at such time or times as the Secretary of Agriculture may determine. Expenses in connection with agents' and brokers' commissions, interest on Treasury notes and other obligations, partial premium payments by the Corporation, and the direct cost of loss adjusters for crop inspections and loss adjustments may be paid from premium income and other Corporation funds, and any such payments may be restored by appropriations in subsequent years. The Corporation may not employ more than two hundred additional permanent full-time employees, in excess of the number of full-time employees employed by the Corporation on the effective date of the Federal Crop Insurance Act of 1980, to implement the provisions of this title, except in the case of, and only during, emergencies. (7 U.S.C. 1516(a).)

(b) The Secretary and the Corporation, respectively, are authorized to issue such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this title. (7 U.S.C. 1516(b).)

(c)23 (1) If at any time the moneys available to the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation are insufficient to enable the Corporation to discharge its responsibility of indemnifying producers for losses under this title, the Corporation may, upon majority vote of its Board of Directors, request the Secretary of Agriculture to use the funds of the Commodity Credit Corporation to make timely payment of indemnities to producers. Upon receiving such a request, the Secretary of Agriculture may use the funds of the Commodity Credit Corporation to meet obligations to indemnify producers for losses under this title. The Secretary's authority to use the funds of the Commodity Credit Corporation for the purposes of this subsection shall expire one year after the date on which the authority is first used.

(2) The authority to make commitments under this subsection, in excess of funds available to the Commodity Credit Corporation under section 4 of the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and the Act of October 11, 1978 (92 Stat. 1073), shall be effective for any fiscal year only to the extent provided by appropriation Acts. (7 U.S.C. 1516(c).)

(d)24 Except as provided in subsection (c), if at any time the moneys available to the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation are insufficient to enable the Corporation to discharge its responsibility of indemnifying producers for fosses under this title, the Corporation may issue to the Secretary of the Treasury notes or other obligations in such forms and denominations, bearing such maturities, and subject to such terms and conditions, as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury. Redemption of such notes or obligations shall be made by the Corporation from moneys available from premiums or the issuance of capital stock under section 504 of this title. Such notes or other obligations shall bear interest at a rate determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, which shall be not less than a rate determined by taking into consideration the average market yield on outstanding marketable obligations of the United States of comparable maturities during the

23 Subsection (c) was added by P.L. 96-365, 94 Stat. 1312, Sept. 26, 1980. This authority was first used Oct. 27, 1980. 24 Subsection (d) was added by P.L. 96-365, 94 Stat. 1312, Sept. 26, 1980.

month preceding the issuance of the notes or other obligations. The Secretary of the Treasury shall purchase any notes or other obligations issued hereunder and for that purpose is authorized to use as a public debt transaction the proceeds from the sale of any securities issued under the Second Liberty Bond Act and the purposes for which securities may be issued under that Act are extended to include any purchase of such notes or obligations. The Secretary of the Treasury may at any time sell any of the notes or other obligations acquired by the Secretary of the Treasury under this subsection. All redemptions, purchases, and sales by the Secretary of the Treasury of such notes or other obligations shall be treated as public debt transactions of the United States. The borrowing authority provided for in this subsection may be exercised by the Corporation only to such extent or in such amounts as are provided in appropriation Acts. (7 U.S.C. 1516(d).)

SEPARABILITY

SEC. 517. The sections of this title and subdivisions of sections are hereby declared to be separable, and in the event any one or more sections or parts of the same of this title be held to be unconstitutional, the same shall not affect the validity of other sections or parts of sections of this title. (7 U.S.C. 1517.)

AGRICULTURAL COMMODITY

SEC. 518.25 "Agricultural commodity", as used in this title, means wheat, cotton, flax, corn, dry beans, oats, barley, rye, tobacco, rice, peanuts, soybeans, sugar beets, sugar cane, tomatoes, grain sorghum, sunflowers, raisins, oranges, sweet corn, dry peas, freezing and canning peas, forage, apples, grapes, potatoes, timber and forests, nursery crops, citrus, and other fruits and vegetables, nuts, tame hay, native grass, aquacultural species (including, but not limited to, any species of finfish, mollusk, crustacean, or other aquatic invertebrate, amphibian, reptile, or aquatic plant propagated or reared in a controlled or selected environment), or any other agricultural commodity, excluding livestock and stored grain, determined by the Board under subsection (a) or (i) of section 508 of this title, or any one or more of such commodities, as the context may indicate. (7 U.S.C. 1518)

RIGHT TO AMEND

SEC. 519. The right to alter, amend, or repeal this title is hereby reserved. (7 U.S.C. 1519.)

PERSONS UNDER TWENTY-ONE YEARS OF AGE

SEC. 520.26 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be denied insurance under this Act solely on the ground that he is under twenty-one years of age if such person is (1) over eighteen years of age, and (2) has a bona fide insurable interest in a crop as an owner-operator, landlord, tenant or sharecropper: Provided, That any

25 Section 518 was amended by P.L. 96-365, 94 Stat. 1312, Sept. 26, 1980, to expand the definition of agricultural commodity as used herein. 26 Section 520 was added by P.L. 92-357, 86 Stat. 501, July 28, 1972.

such person who enters into a Federal Crop Insurance contract shall be subject to the same legal liability and have the same legal rights with respect to such contract as any person over the age of twenty-one years. (7 U.S.C. 1520.)

CRIMINAL PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO FEDERAL CROP INSURANCE

CORPORATION

Whoever, being an officer, agent or employee of or connected in any capacity with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Credit Union Administration, Home Owners' Loan Corporation, Farm Credit Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, Farmers' Home Corporation, the Secretary of Agriculture acting through the Farmers' Home Administration, or any land bank, intermediate credit bank, bank for cooperatives or any lending, mortgage, insurance, credit or savings and loan corporation or association authorized or acting under the laws of the United States or any institution the accounts of which are insured by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, or by the Administrator of the National Credit Union Administration or any small business investment company, and whoever, being a receiver of any such institution, or agent or employee of the receiver, embezzles, abstracts, purloins or willfully misapplies any moneys, funds, credits, securities or other things of value belonging to such institution, or pledged or otherwise intrusted to its care, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; but if the amount or value embezzled, abstracted, purloined or misapplied does not exceed $100, he shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. (18 U.S.C. 657.)

Whoever, with intent to defraud, knowingly conceals, removes, disposes of, or converts to his own use or to that of another, any property mortgaged or pledged to, or held by, the Farm Credit Administration, any Federal intermediate credit bank, or the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, Farmers' Home Corporation, the Secretary of Agriculture acting through the Farmers' Home Administration, any production credit association organized under sections 1131-1134m of Title 12, any regional agricultural credit corporation, or any bank for cooperatives, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both; but if the value of such property does not exceed $100, he shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. (18 U.S.C. 658.)

Whoever, being an officer, agent or employee of or connected in any capacity with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, National Credit Union Administration, Home Owners' Loan Corporation, Farm Credit Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, Farmers' Home Corporation, the Secretary of Agriculture acting through the Farmers' Home Administration, or any land bank, intermediate credit bank, bank for cooperatives or any lending, mortgage, insurance, credit or savings and loan corporation or association authorized or acting under the laws of the United States or any institution the accounts of which are insured by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, or by the Administrator of the National Credit Union

Administration, or any small business investment company, with intent to defraud any such institution or any other company, body politic or corporate, or any individual, or to deceive any officer, auditor, examiner or agent of any such institution or of department or agency of the United States, makes any false entry in any book, report or statement of or to any such institution, or without being duly authorized, draws any order or bill of exchange, makes any acceptance, or issues, puts forth or assigns any note, debenture, bond or other obligation, or draft, bill of exchange, mortgage, judgment, or decree, or, with intent to defraud the United States or any agency thereof, or any corporation, institution, or association referred to in this section, participates or shares in or receives directly or indirectly any money, profit, property, or benefits through any transaction, loan, commission, contract, or any other act of any such corporation, institution, or association, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. (18 U.S.C. 1006.)

Whoever knowingly makes any false statement or report, or willfully overvalues any land, property or security, for the purpose of influencing in any way the action of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Farm Credit Administration, Federal Crop Insurance Corporation, Farmers' Home Corporation, the Secretary of Agriculture acting through the Farmers' Home Administration, any Federal intermediate credit bank, or any division, officer, or employee thereof, or of any corporation organized under sections 1131-1134m of Title 12, or of any regional agricultural credit corporation established pursuant to law, or of the National Agricultural Credit Corporation, a Federal Home Loan Bank, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, a Federal Savings and Loan Association, a Federal land bank, a joint-stock land bank, a Federal land bank association, a Federal Reserve bank, a small business investment company, a Federal credit union, an insured State-chartered credit union, any institution the accounts of which are insured by the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, any bank the deposits of which are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any member of the Federal Home Loan Bank System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, or the Administrator of the National Credit Union Administration, upon any application, advance, discount, purchase, purchase agreement, repurchase agreement, commitment, or loan, or any change or extension of any of the same, by renewal, deferment of action or otherwise, or the acceptance, release, or substitution of security therefor, shall be fined not more than $5,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both. (18 U.S.C. 1014.)

Whoever, while acting in any official capacity in the administration of any Act of Congress relating to crop insurance or to the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation speculates in any agricultural commodity or product thereof, to which such enactments apply, or in contracts relating thereto, or in the stock or membership interests of any association or corporation engaged in handling, processing, or disposing of any such commodity or product, shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both. (18 U.S.C. 1903.)