46 U.S.C. § 53702: General authority

The Secretary or Administrator, on terms the Secretary or Administrator may prescribe, may guarantee or make a commitment to guarantee the payment of the principal of and interest on an obligation eligible to be guaranteed under this chapter. A guarantee or commitment to guarantee shall cover 100 percent of the principal and interest. The Federal Financing Bank shall be the preferred eligible lender of the principal and interest of the guaranteed obligations issued under this chapter. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, any obligation involving a fishing vessel, fishery facility, aquaculture facility, individual fishing quota, or fishing capacity reduction program issued under this chapter after October 11, 1996 , shall be a direct loan obligation for which the Secretary shall be the obligee, rather than an obligation issued to an obligee other than the Secretary and guaranteed by the Secretary. A direct loan obligation under this subsection shall be treated in the same manner and to the same extent as an obligation guaranteed under this chapter except with respect to provisions of this chapter that by their nature can only be applied to obligations guaranteed under this chapter. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the annual rate of interest an obligor shall pay on a direct loan obligation under this subsection is 2 percent plus the additional percent the Secretary must pay as interest to borrow from the Treasury the funds to make the loan. Of the direct loan obligations issued by the Secretary under this chapter, the Secretary shall make a minimum of $59,000,000 available each fiscal year for historic uses. financing the construction or reconstruction of a fishing vessel in a fishery managed under a limited access system; or financing the purchase of harvesting rights in a fishery that is federally managed under a limited access system.