12 2 STA T . 1 750PUBLIC LA W 110 – 2 46—J U NE 1 8, 2008 SEC.16 1 7 .S IGNATUR E AUT HO RIT Y . (a)INGE NE RAL.— I nc a r r yi n gout t h i s tit le an d title II and a m endments made b y those titles , i f the S ecretary a p pro v esa document, the Secretary shall not subse q uently determine the docu - ment is inadequate or invalid because of the lac k of authority of any person signing the document on behalf of the applicant or any other individual, entity, general partnership, or j oint venture, or the documents relied upon w ere determined inadequate or invalid, unless the person signing the program document knowingly and willfully falsified the evidence of signature authority or a signature. (b) AF F I R M A T I O N.— ( 1 )IN G ENERAL.— N othing in this section prohibits the Sec- retary from asking a proper party to affirm any document that otherwise would be considered approved under subsection (a). ( 2 ) NO RETROA C TI V E EFFECT.—A denial of benefits based on a lack of affirmation under paragraph (1) shall not be retroactive with respect to third-party producers who were not the subject of the erroneous representation of authority, if the third-party producers— (A) relied on the prior approval by the Secretary of the documents in good faith
and ( B ) substantively complied with all program require- ments SEC. 161 8 . M O D ERNI Z ATION O F FARM SER V ICE AGENCY. Not later than 1 80 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall transmit to the C ommittee on Agriculture and the Committee on Appropriations of the H ouse of R epresenta- tives and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and F orestry and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate a report pre- pared by a third party that describes— (1) the data processing and information technology chal- lenges e x perienced in local offices of the Farm Service Agency; (2) the impact of those challenges on service to producers, on efficiency of personnel, and on implementation of this Act; ( 3 ) the need for information technology system upgrades of the Farm Service Agency relative to other agencies of the D epartment of Agriculture; ( 4 ) the detailed plan needed to fulfill the needs of the Department that are identified in paragraph (3), including hardware, software, and infrastructure requirements; ( 5 ) the estimated cost and timeframe for long-term mod- erni z ation and stabilization of Farm Service Agency information technology systems; ( 6 ) the benefits associated with such modernization and stabilization; and ( 7 ) an evaluation of the existence of appropriate oversight within the Department to ensure that funds needed for systems upgrades can be appropriately managed. SEC. 161 9 . INFORMATION GATHERING. (a) GEO SP ATIAL S Y STEMS.— T he Secretary shall ensure that all the geospatial data of the agencies of the Department of Agriculture are portable and standardized. (b) L IMITATION ON DISCLOS U RES.— 7USC8 7 91.Deadlin e. R e ports . 7 USC 879 0 .
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