Public Law 95–580

an adequate transportation system, made up of various modes of transportation, is essential to the overall success of the Nation’s agriculture programs, to a sound program of rural development, and to the economic stability of the United States;

the economical and efficient movement of agricultural commodities (including forest products) and agricultural inputs has been impeded by a shortage of railroad freight cars and motor trucks and by the deteriorated condition of many rail roadbeds throughout the United States;

the economical and efficient movement of agricultural commodities (including forest products) and agricultural inputs is further threatened by the proposed abandonment by the railroad companies of thousands of miles of important railroad lines in the United States;

the maintaining of an efficient and economical transportation system for agriculture and rural development in the United States has not received the priority attention which such system should have received; and

the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Transportation have a responsibility to assume a more active role in representing the interests of agriculture and rural development in the United States in order to insure the availability of an adequate, efficient, and economical transportation system sufficient to meet the needs of agriculture and rural development in the United States.

There is hereby created in accordance with the provisions

49 USC 1653 note.

of this section a Rural Transportation Advisory Task Force (hereinafter referred to as the “Task Force”).

The Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Transportation

Cochairmen and membership.

(hereinafter referred to as the Secretaries) shall serve as Cochairmen of the Task Force, which shall consist of fourteen members in addition to the Cochairmen, appointed by the Secretaries on the following basis:

Within fifteen days after the enactment of this section, the Secretaries

Recommendations from congressional committees.

shall solicit recommendations from the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission; the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, United States Senate; and the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, United States House of Representatives. The Secretaries shall cause notice to be published in the Federal Register soliciting recommendations from which to make the selections required under subparts (6), (7), and (8) of subsection (b) of this section.

Vacancies on the Task Force shall be filled in the manner prescribed for original selections.

Members of the Task Force who are full-time officers or employees of the United States shall receive no additional pay on account of this service on the Task Force. While away from their homes

Travel allowances.

or regular places of business in the performance of services for the Task Force, members of the Task Force shall be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, in the same manner as persons employed intermittently in the Government service are allowed expenses under section 5703 of title 5, United States Code.

The Task Force shall be dissolved forty-five days after the publication of the final report required under section 4 of this Act.

The Secretaries shall furnish such supplies and clerical, administrative, and other support as they deem necessary to enable the Task Force to carry out its responsibilities.

The Task Force may compile and publish an initial

Report, publication and dissemination.

49 USC 1653 note.

report which, if published, shall include recommendations for determining the essential transportation needs of agriculture on a continuing basis, for establishing a national agricultural transportation policy, and for methods of identifying impediments to a railroad transportation system adequate to meet the essential needs of the agriculture industry of the United States. Such report, if published, shall also include, but shall not be limited to, maps which identify the locations in the several States which the Task Force, on the basis of the importance of such locations within agricultural producing, marketing, or consuming areas, determines should receive railroad service: Provided, That this directive is not to be construed as requiring comprehensive line-by-line analyses of all branch lines.

The report authorized in section 3(a) shall, if published, be

Submittal to congressional committees.

published not later than one hundred and eighty days after the date of enactment of this Act. The Task Force shall submit copies of such report, if published, to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate and the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and shall provide for the widespread public dissemination of such report throughout the United States as soon as practicable after its publication.

Within ninety days after the publication of the initial report

Public hearings.

described in section 3(a), or if such report is not published, within two hundred and seventy days after enactment of this Act, the Task Force shall announce dates for and hold public hearings at various locations throughout the United States, take such testimony and receive such evidence as it considers advisable for the purpose of obtaining the views of interested persons on such initial report or, if such report is not published, on recommendations for the final report required under this Act.

Within one hundred and twenty days after the publication of

Testimony summary, publication.

the initial report described in section 3(a) or, if such report is not published, within three hundred days after enactment of this Act, the Task Force shall prepare and publish a summary of the testimony presented at such hearings, and shall provide for the widespread public dissemination of such summary as soon as possible following the publication thereof.

The Task Force shall prepare and publish, within four

Final report, publication.

49 USC 1653 note.

hundred and twenty days after the date of enactment of this Act, a final report including recommendations for determining the essential needs of agriculture on a continuing basis, for establishing a national agricultural transportation policy, for methods of identifying impediments to a railroad transportation adequate to meet the essential needs of the agriculture industry, and containing specific recommendations for a railroad transportation system adequate to meet the essential needs of the agriculture industry of the United States. In preparing such final report, the Task Force shall take into consideration the testimony received at the public hearing required under this Act.

Copies of such final report shall be submitted to the Committee

Submittal to congressional committees and ICC.

on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate, the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives, and the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The Task Force shall provide for the widespread public dissemination of such final report.