§ 1464.201 - Applicability and basic terms for payments to states.

(a) This subpart sets forth the terms and conditions of the Tobacco Loss Assistance Program (TLAP) authorized by Section 803 of the FY 2000 Agriculture Appropriations Act (Public Law 106-78). That section provides that $328 million of funds of the Commodity Credit Corporation shall be made available to make payments to States for the benefit of certain persons for the reduction in quantity of tobacco quota.

(b) States, in order to be eligible for payment under this part, must be States having farms to which, for “eligible kinds of tobacco” only, tobacco quotas or allotments were made available under 7 CFR part 723 for the 1999 crop years. “Eligible kinds of tobacco” for purposes of this part will be any kind of tobacco for which the national marketing quota for 1999 was reduced from the 1998 level.

(c) Except as provided in § 1464.205, all payments under this part shall be made to States and only to those states with producers of eligible kinds of tobacco.

(d) Such payments shall be made to the State as soon as practicable after the application for such payment by the State.

(e) Payments from the $328 million allotted to this program for loss of quota shall be made to the qualifying States in proportion, as determined by the Executive Vice President of CCC, to the relative quantity of lost quota apportioned to the qualifying States for eligible kinds of tobacco.

(f) In the case of a State that is a party to the National Tobacco Growers Settlement Trust, the State shall, to the extent practicable, distribute funds made available under this part (that is, under the TLAP) to eligible persons in the State in accordance with the formulas established pursuant to the Trust to the extent provided for in the authorizing statute. In the case of a State that is not party to the National Tobacco Growers Settlement Trust, the State shall distribute funds made available under TLAP to eligible persons in the State in a manner determined by the State and approved by the Executive Vice President, CCC. The National Tobacco Growers Settlement Trust referred to in this section is that private trust created by tobacco companies to make approximately $5 billion in payments available to parties involved in the production of tobacco, and which has distributed the monies through local, state trusts.