(b) Any person willfully failing or refusing to file such a return, or filing a willfully false return, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000.

GENERAL AND PENAL PROVISIONS

SEC. 9. (a) No tax-payment warrant issued in accordance with this Act may be transferred or assigned either in whole or in part, except by the executor or other legal representative of a deceased producer to whom a tax-payment warrant has been issued under this Act. Any person who acquires a tax-payment warrant from another person or who transfers a tax-payment warrant to another person in violation of the provisions of this Act, or who violates any provision of this Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not more than $1,000 or sentenced to not more than six months' imprisonment, or both.

(b) Any person who, with intent to defraud, forges, makes, or counterfeits any tax-payment warrant or any stamp, tag, or other means of identification made or used under this Act, or makes any false entry upon such warrant or any false statement in any application for the issuance of such warrant, or who uses, sells, lends, or has in his possession any such altered, forged, or counterfeited warrant, stamp, tag, or other means of identification, or who makes, uses, sells, or has in his possession any material in imitation of the material used in the manufacture of such warrants, stamps, tags, or other means of identification, or who makes any false statement in any application with respect to the levying and collection of the tax, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not exceeding $5,000 or by imprisonment not exceeding five years, or both.

APPROPRIATIONS AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES

SEC. 10. (a) The proceeds derived from the tax are hereby appropriated to be available to the Secretary of Agriculture for administrative expenses and refunds of taxes and other payments under this Act. The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Treasury shall estimate from time to time the amount of the tax which will be collected during a period following any such estimate not in excess of four months, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, advance to the Secretary of Agriculture the amounts so estimated. The amount of any such advance shall be deducted from such tax proceeds as shall subsequently become available under this subsection.

(b) Out of the sums available to the Secretary of Agriculture under the Agricultural Adjustment Act, as amended, such sums as may be necessary for administrative expenses, refunds of taxes, and other payments under this Act are hereby made available.

(c) The Secretary of Agriculture is authorized in order to carry out the provisions of this Act to appoint, without regard to the provisions of the civil-service laws, such officers, agents, and employees, and to utilize such Federal officers and employees and, with the consent of the State, such State and local officers and employees, as he may find necessary, to prescribe their authorities, duties, responsibilities, and tenure, and, without regard to the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, to fix the compensation of any officers, agents, and employees so appointed.

(d) The administrative expenses provided for under this section shall include, among others, expenditures for personal services and rent in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, for law books, periodicals, newspapers, and books of reference, for contract stenographic reporting services, and for printing and paper in addition to allotments under the existing law.

(e) The Secretary of Agriculture shall transfer to the Treasury Department, and is authorized to transfer to other agencies, out of funds available for administrative expenses under this Act, such sums as are required to pay administrative expenses incurred and refunds made by such Department or agencies in the administration of this Act.

REFUNDS

SEC. 11. (a) No refund of any tax, penalty, or interest paid under this Act shall be allowed unless claim therefor is presented within six months after the date of payment of such tax, penalty, or interest.

(b) No suit or proceeding shall be maintained in any court for the recovery of any tax under this Act alleged to have been erroneously or illegally assessed or collected, or of any penalty claimed to have been collected without authority, until a claim for refund or credit has been duly filed with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, according to the provisions of law in that regard, and the regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, under this Act; but such suit or proceeding may be maintained whether or not such tax, penalty, or interest has been paid under protest or duress. No suit or proceeding shall be begun before the expiration of six months from the date of filing such claim, unless the Commissioner renders a decision thereon within that time, nor after the expiration of two years from the date of the payment of such tax, penalty, or interest, unless such suit or proceeding is begun within two years after the disallowance of the claim or of the part of such claim to which such suit or proceeding relates. The Commissioner shall, within ninety days after any such disallowance, notify the taxpayer thereof by mail.

SEPARABILITY OF PROVISIONS

SEC. 12. If any provision of this Act, or the applicability thereof to any person or circumstance, is held invalid the remainder of this Act and the applicability thereof and of such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

TERMINATION

SEC. 13. The tax shall terminate with respect to any type of tobacco at the end of the crop year current at the time the Secretary of Agriculture proclaims that rental and/or benefit payments under the Agricultural Adjustment Act are to be discontinued with respect to such type of tobacco or whenever the President finds and proclaims that the national economic emergency with respect to such type of tobacco has ended, whichever is the earlier.

SEC. 14. The Secretary of Agriculture is directed not to refuse on the ground of lateness any offer by a tobacco producer to become a contracting producer, if such offer is filed with the Secretary of Agriculture within thirty days after the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 15. Having due regard to the welfare of domestic producers of tobacco and to the protection of domestic consumers thereof and to a just relation between the price received by such domestic producers and the price paid by such domestic consumers and in other respects to effectuate the declared policy of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture may from time to time, by orders or regulations:

(A) For each crop year in which any type of tobacco is harvested to which the tax is applicable, or for any part of such crop year, establish quotas for the importation into continental United States of cigar-leaf types of tobacco, and during such crop year readjust any such quotas. Such quotas shall be based on average quantities of such tobacco imported into continental United States during the crop years 1932-1933 and 1933-1934, except that in the case of tobacco imported from the Republic of Cuba, such quotas shall be based on average quantities of tobacco so imported during the crop years 1928-1933.18

(B) Allot the quotas provided for by subsection (A) to the importers of such tobacco in the United States in such manner as he may deem fair and equitable having due regard to the respective amounts of tobacco imported during the crop years 1932-1933 and 1933-1934 by such persons.

SEC. 16. After importation quotas therefor have been established, all cigarleaf tobacco of any type imported into continental United States in excess of the quota for such type shall be subject to an import tax. The rate of the import tax, expressed in cents per pound, shall be determined by the Secretary of Agriculture as hereinafter provided. On May 1 of each crop year for which quotas are to be established pursuant to section 15, the Secretary of Agriculture shall determine (from available statistics of the Department of Agriculture) the average sales price per pound, during the preceding twelve months, of all domestic cigar-leaf tobacco the sale of which is to be taxed during the ensuing crop year under this Act. This average sales price, times the average per centum tax rate then current under this Act on the sale of such domestic cigar-leaf tobacco, shall be the rate per pound of the import tax and shall be proclaimed by the Secretary of Agriculture. The import tax shall be paid prior to the release of the tobacco subject thereto from customs custody or control.

1 Passed Senate as 1926-1933, but was engrossed as 1928-1933 The House adopted the provision as

As used in this and the preceding section "cigar-leaf types of tobacco" shall include cigars, which for the purposes of the quotas, allotments, and import tax provided for by said sections shall be translated into terms of raw cigar-leaf tobacco of the respective types from which such cigars are produced, pursuant to conversion factors established and proclaimed by the Secretary of Agriculture. Approved, June 28, 1934.

CROP PRODUCTION LOANS, FEED FOR LIVESTOCK IN DROUGHT AND STORM-STRICKEN AREAS

48 Stat. 354

[PUBLIC NO. 97-73D CONGRESS]

(Extract)

SEC. 2. (c) No loan shall be made under this Act to any applicant who shall not have first established to the satisfaction of the proper officer or employee of the Farm Credit Administration, under such regulations as the Governor may prescribe (1) that such applicant is unable to procure from other sources a loan in an amount reasonably adequate to meet his needs for the purposes for which loans may be made under this Act; and (2) that such applicant is cooperating directly in the crop production control program of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration or is not proposing to increase his 1934 production of basic agricultural commodities in a manner detrimental to the success of such program.