An amendment comprised of the following amendments offered En Bloc in Part B of House Report 110-261: Amendment Nos. 20 and 29.

Amendment No. 20 Offered by Mr. Terry

At the end of title IX, add the following new section:

SEC. __. SUPPLEMENTING CORN AS AN ETHANOL FEEDSTOCK.

(a) Research and Development Program.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall establish a program to make grants of not to exceed $1,000,000 each to no more than 10 universities for a 3-year program of demonstration of supplementing corn as an ethanol feedstock with sweet sorghum.

(b) Program Goals.--The goals of the program under this section shall be to--

(1) enhance agronomic efficiency of the crop on marginal lands by--

(A) developing best management practices for maintaining high sorghum yields while using less water and nitrogen than corn;

(B) identifying and selecting plants with a high sugar content; and

(C) developing cold-tolerant sweet sorghum varieties to enable two crops to be grown per season;

(2) enhance ethanol processing potential in the crop by--

(A) developing a robust technology for centralized ethanol production facilities that pair high-performing sweet sorghum lines with different yeasts to produce the best process for converting sweet sorghum juice into ethanol;

(B) conducting process and chemical analyses of sweet sorghum sap fermentation;

(C) introducing cellulosic hydrolyzing enzymes into sweet sorghum to promote biomass conversion; and

(D) performing life-cycle analysis of sweet sorghum ethanol, including analysis of energy yield, efficiency, and greenhouse gas reduction;

(3) establish a sweet sorghum production system optimized for the region of the university conducting the research;

(4) improve sweet sorghum lines with higher sugar production and performance with minimal agricultural inputs;

(5) optimize sugar fermentation using selected yeast strains;

(6) develop sweet sorghum lines with improved cold tolerance and cellulosic degradation; and

(7) develop agricultural models for predicting agricultural performance and ethanol yield under various growing conditions.

(c) Award Criteria.--The Secretary shall award grants under this section only to universities that--

(1) have access to multiple lines of sweet sorghum for research; and

(2) are located in a State where sweet sorghum is anticipated to grow well on marginal lands.

(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary for carrying out this section $10,000,000.

Amendment No. 29 Offered by Mr. Hall of New York

At the end of subtitle C of title II, add the following new section:

SEC. 2303. MUCK SOILS CONSERVATION.

(a) Establishment of Program.--The Secretary of Agriculture shall carry out a conservation program under which the Secretary makes payments to assist owners and operators of eligible land specified in subsection (b) to conserve and improve the soil, water, and wildlife resources of such land.

(b) Eligible Land.--To be eligible for inclusion in the program established under this section, the land must--

(1) be comprised of soil that qualifies as muck, as determined by the Secretary;

(2) be used for production of an agricultural crop;

(3) have a spring cover crop planted in conjunction with the primary agricultural crop referred to in paragraph (2);

(4) have a winter crop planted; and

(5) have ditch banks seeded with grass that is maintained on a year-round basis.

(c) Payment Amounts.--The Secretary may provide payments of not less than $300, but not more than $500, per acre per year under the program.

(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry out the program $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2012.