(3) one to be selected from a list of qualified individuals recommended by the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission;

(4) one to be selected from a list of qualified individuals recommended by the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, United States Senate;

(5) one to be selected from a list of qualified individuals recommended by the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, United States House of Representatives;

(6) three to be selected from lists of qualified individuals recommended by carriers and associations of carriers, not to include more than one representative from each of the three transportation modes, rail, motor, and water;

(7) four to be selected from lists of qualified individuals recommended by the agricultural community, including agricultural shippers and associations of shippers; and

(8) two to be selected from lists of qualified individuals recommended by the academic community.

(c) Within fifteen days after the enactment of this section, the Secretaries 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.

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

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

SEC. 3. (a) The Task Force may compile and publish an initial 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.

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

(c) Within ninety days after the publication of the initial report 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.

(d) Within one hundred and twenty days after the publication of 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.

SEC. 4. (a) The Task Force shall prepare and publish, within four 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.

(b) Copies of such final report shall be submitted to the Committee 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. SEC. 5. The provisions of this Act shall become effective October 1, 1978.

PART VIII. MISCELLANEOUS

FOOD STAMP ACT OF 1977

Food and Agriculture Act of 1977, Public Law 95-113, section 1301, 91 Stat. 958, 7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.

RESEARCH, DEMONSTRATION, AND EVALUATIONS

SEC. 17.1 (a) The Secretary may, by way of making contracts with or grants to public or private organizations or agencies, undertake research that will help improve the administration and effectiveness of the food stamp program in delivering nutrition-related benefits.

(b) (1) The Secretary is authorized to conduct on a trial basis, in one or more areas of the United States, pilot or experimental projects designed to test program changes that might increase the efficiency of the food stamp program and improve the delivery of food stamp benefits to eligible households, including projects involving the payment of the value of allotments in the form of cash to eligible households all of whose members are either age sixty-five or over or entitled to supplemental security income benefits under title XVI of the Social Security Act, the use of countersigned food coupons or similar identification mechanisms that do not invade a household's privacy, and the use of food checks or other voucher-type forms in place of food coupons. The Secretary may waive the requirements of this Act to the degree necessary for such projects to be conducted, except that no project shall be implemented which would lower or further restrict the income or resource standards or benefit levels provided pursuant to sections 5 and 8 of this Act. Any pilot or experimental project implemented under this paragraph involving the payment of the value of allotments in the form of cash to eligible households shall be continued until October 1, 1981, if the State so requests.2

(2) The Secretary shall, jointly with the Secretary of Labor, implement two pilot projects involving the performance of work in return for food stamp benefits in each of the seven administrative regions of the Food and Nutrition Service of the Department of Agriculture, such projects to be (A) appropriately divided in each region between locations that are urban and rural in characteristics and among locations selected to provide a representative cross-section of political subdivisions in the States and (B) submitted for approval prior to project implementation, together with the names of the agencies or organizations that will be engaged in such projects, to the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate. Under such pilot

17 U.S.C. 2026. Section 1301 of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1977 amended the Food Stamp Act of 1964. The Act as amended is cited as the Food Stamp Act of 1977. Last sentence added by section 130 of the Food Stamp Act Amendments of 1980, Public Law 96-249, 94 Stat. 367.

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projects, any person who is subject to the work registration requirements pursuant to section 6(d) of this Act, and is a member of a household that does not have earned income equal to or exceeding the allotment to which the household is otherwise entitled pursuant to section 8(a) of this Act, shall be ineligible to participate in the food stamp program as a member of any household during any month in which such person refuses, after not being offered employment in the private sector of the economy for more than thirty days (ten days in at least one pilot project area designated by the Secretary) after the initial registration for employment referred to in section 6(d) (1) (i) of this Act, to accept an offer of employment from a political subdivision or a prime sponsor pursuant to the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 812), for which employment compensation shall be paid in the form of the allotment to which the household is otherwise entitled pursuant to section 8 (a) of this Act, with each hour of employment entitling the household to a portion of the allotment equal in value to 100 per centum of the Federal minimum hourly rate under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended (29 U.S.C. 206 (a) (1)); which employment shall not, together with any other hours worked in any other capacity by such person exceed forty hours a week; and which employment shall not be used by the employer to fill a job opening created by the action of such employer in laying off or terminating the employment of any regular employee not supported under this paragraph in anticipation of filling the vacancy so created by hiring an employee or employees to be supported under this paragraph: Provided, That all of the political subdivision's or prime sponsor's public service jobs supported under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 812), are filled before such subdivision or sponsor can extend a job offer pursuant to this paragraph: Provided further, That the sponsor of each such project shall provide the assurances required of prime sponsors under section 205 (c) (7), (8), (15), (19), and (24) of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 845 (c)), and the Secretary shall require such sponsors to comply with the conditions contained in sections 208 (a) (1), (4), and (5) and (c) and 703 (4) of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 848 (a) and (c) and 983). The Secretary and the Secretary of Labor shall jointly issue reports to the appropriate committees of Congress on the progress of such pilot projects no later than six and twelve months following enactment of this Act, shall issue interim reports no later than October 1, 1979, October 1, 1980, and March 30, 1981, shall issue a final report describing the results of such pilot projects based upon their operation from their commencement through the fiscal year ending September 30, 1981, and shall pay to the agencies or organizations operating such pilot projects 50 per centum of all administrative costs involved in such operation.*

(c) The Secretary shall develop and implement measures for evaluating, on an annual or more frequent basis, the effectiveness of the food stamp program in achieving its stated objectives, including,

3 Parenthetical provision added by section 131 of the Food Stamp Act Amendments of 1980. Public Law 96-249, 94 Stat. 367.

4 Section 17 (b) (2) was amended by the Act of September 30, 1978, Public Law 95-400, 92 Stat. 856, and the Food Stamp Act Amendments of 1980, Public Law 96-249, section 132, 94 Stat. 368, to extend the pilot project program and provide for cost sharing.

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but not limited to, the program's impact upon the nutritional and economic status of participating households, the program's impact upon all sectors of the agricultural economy, including farmers and ranchers, as well as retail food stores, and the program's relative fairness to households of different income levels, different age composition, different size, and different regions of residence.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary shall, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, conduct a study, through the use of Federal income tax data, of the feasibility, alternative methods of implementation, and the effects of a program to recover food stamp benefits from members of eligible households in which the adjusted gross income of members of such households for a calendar year (as defined by the Internal Revenue Code of 1954) may exceed twice the income poverty guidelines set forth in section 5(c) of this Act. Such study shall be conducted in rural and urban areas. only on a voluntary basis by food stamp recipients. The Secretary shall, no later than twelve months and eighteen months from the date of enactment of this Act, report the results of the study to the Committees on Agriculture and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and to the Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry and Finance of the Senate, together with such recommendations as the Secretary deems appropriate.